Thousands of colorful posters will soon adorn the SMU campus asthe second wave of an effort to educate students about how muchthey’re drinking and to encourage responsible drinking.

The distribution date of the 6,000 printed posters will bedecided at the Social Norms Committee’s Sept. 24 meeting saidJohn Sanger, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug AbusePrevention. The posters feature a vibrant graphic layout with iconsand rely on witty, humorous headlines.

“I’m interested to see if the second wave of posterswill outdo the first,” senior business administration majorTeisha-Vonique Hood said. “The first posters were verycomical.”

Sanger, who is also a chairman of the committee, said it willwork with Residence Life and Student Housing to hand out posters toresidence halls. Volunteers will also distribute posters aroundcampus and to the academic buildings.

This distribution is the second wave of a three-part postercampaign launched last April by the committee. The posters weredesigned last year by an advanced portfolio class taught byPatricia Alvey, the distinguished chair of SMU’s TemerlinAdvertising Institute.

A 2002 survey of students by the SMU Center for Alcohol and DrugAbuse Prevention found that the majority of students do drinkresponsibly but think their friends do not. The goal of thecampaign is to “help students begin to understand what thenorm is and celebrate the majority,” Alvey said.

Whether this campaign is successful in changing students’perceptions about drinking norms won’t be known until anothersurvey is conducted in the spring. However, Sanger and professorsat the advertising institute have noticed that the posters areattracting attention and invoking dialogue about an importantissue.

“People liked them enough to want them,” Alvey said.Many of the posters from the first wave were stolen.

The final part of the poster campaign will be released nextsemester.