The Wellness Center has created the alcohol awareness campaign Stop @ Buzzed to give students information on how to be safe and healthy if they choose to drink.

A group of St. Thomas students initiated the campaign after a member encountered an intoxicated student in a residence hall and was concerned. Junior Therese Coughlan, a student worker at the Wellness Center, is one of the students leading the campaign and said she hopes Stop @ Buzzed will make a difference in the St. Thomas community.

“I hope that it will really make an impact on people’s drinking behavior and make them think twice before getting too drunk or going over their limit or things like that,” Coughlan said.

Birdie Cunningham, the interim director of Health Services and the Wellness Center, has also been working with the students to put the campaign together.

“I’m hoping that it will resonate with students more because we’re saying if you choose to drink, just stop at buzzed. And I think that’s a message students can relate to,” Cunningham said. “Stop at buzzed because you can still get up and go to class in the morning, or you can get up and go for a run. You know you’re going to feel good, but you’re still going to have this great night.”

According to Cunningham, Stop @ Buzzed recognizes that safe drinking affects both students and the entire St. Thomas community.

“I think it’s a topic and area in which a student voice can come forward and say, this is who I am; we’re a community here, and I don’t want alcohol to negatively impact me as a student and who we are as students and what our image is out in the community,” Cunningham said.

Stop @ Buzzed will focus on informing students who are of legal drinking age how to have a healthy relationship with alcohol and will engage with students using posters, giveaways and information tables to challenge students’ knowledge on alcohol.

“My whole theory on alcohol education is if you want students to drink in a healthy way, then you should give them the tools to do that,” Cunningham said. “If we’re telling them the message of one drink per hour … we’ll do stuff like having a table, and people can come and try to pour what one drink would look like.”

Stop @ Buzzed will continue to be unveiled with advertisements throughout February.

Margaret Galush can be reached at galu4637@stthomas.edu.