This year, all new students at SMU were asked to take part in anonline alcohol education course called Alcohol EDU for College. Theclass, in its first year of existence, has two separate portionsthat must be completed.
The first half of the course was taken sometime between AARO andAug. 12, with the second portion coming three to four weeks intothe school year.
This program, which was intended for new students, isn’tlimited to the Class of 2008 — anyone, including parents,faculty, student leaders or the average SMU student, is invited totake the two-hour course. The only necessities are a computer (withInternet connectivity), speakers on the computer and the time totake the course.
The confidential course begins with a questionnaire, then divesright into an array of topics including the effects of alcohol, therisks of drinking, safety issues when drinking and the laws andpenalties one may face when inebriated.
“The goal of the class is to help students make healthierand smarter choices when it comes to alcohol,” said JohnSanger, head of the Alcohol EDU program at SMU.
“We’ve been looking for this kind of program for acouple years and the grant provided by Outside The Classroom [thecompany behind Alcohol EDU] allowed us to finally offer thisprogram to our students.”
Alcohol EDU is also bringing slight changes to the JudicialReferral system. Now, when a student receives their first alcoholviolation, they will be required to take a similar online course toAlcohol EDU for College called Alcohol EDU for Sanctions. Thedifference between the two classes is about a 75 percent overlap ininformation.
So far 1,058 of 1,300 first-year students have completed thecourse.
For more information about taking the course, please refer tothe Memorial Health Center website www.smu.edu/healthcenterfor the appropriate login ID.