Duquesne advocates Awareness Week

THETA GAMMA (Duquesne) — Beer pong is not usually considered a Duquesnable activity, but Duquesne will sponsor a pong tournament on campus this Friday — with water instead of beer. The water pong tournament is part of Alcohol Awareness Week, an annual program held Oct. 16-21 on campuses nationwide that aims to educate students on drinking responsibly through student-run activities.

The week is sponsored by Duquesne’s chapter of Greeks Advocating Mature Management of Alcohol and also includes a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey and a Mario Kart Wii tournament, both with players wearing drunk goggles, which simulate inebriation, said Alyssa Federoff, Vice President for GAMMA and the organizer of Alcohol Awareness Week.

The largest event for the week will be held on Friday. “Shot in the Dark,” the mock beer pong competition sponsored by Alpha Tau Omega, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, will take place in the Union Ballroom Friday at 7 p.m.

In lieu of beer, players will drink water when the opposing team scores. They will pour the amount the water into a bucket to show the amount of alcohol each person would have drank over the course of the night.

Other events included a “mocktail” competition, held Monday, where students compete to create the best non-alcoholic drink. On Wednesday there was a mock-trial, which was meant to show students what an alcohol-abuse related court case might mean to them, Federoff said.

Part of the week aims to raise awareness about the serious health consequences of underage and binge drinking, including high blood alcohol content, impairment and alcohol poisoning, according to Dan Gittins, co-coordinator for DUCares, which teaches students how to safely interact with alcohol and drugs.

Short-term effects of alcohol consumption can impair judgment, but long-term effects can lead to serious bodily harm, he said.

Gittins also hopes the events will help make students aware of how alcohol can be directly related to their safety as well as their academic and professional success.

See the full article by Zach Kuntz f.