NEWS
New campus group focuses on sobriety
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by Emily Korbitz
Monday, February 21, 2005
Sober Students On Campus, a new organization dedicated to providing the University of Wisconsin community with opportunities to enjoy the college social scene sans alcohol, held its kickoff event Friday at Union South.
The group’s kickoff meeting began at 9 p.m. Friday and lasted until 1:30 Saturday morning and provided a variety of substance-free activities for non-drinking students to enjoy. The Wisconsin Union Directorate funded the event as a means of promoting sober alternatives to the substance use typical of many UW students on weekend nights.
Held in Union South’s Varsity Room and attended by approximately 50 people, the event offered many different diversions for students. Poker, Scrabble and other assorted board and card games were available for students to play. Students got in touch with their creative sides by finger painting and building clay models with a product named Model Magic. Students attending viewed two movies, Napoleon Dynamite and Office Space, and munched on the chips and salsa provided.
Sober Students On Campus founder Tamara Lewis initially started the organization out of frustration with the dominance of the drinking culture at UW.
“I had a really hard time meeting non-drinkers last year,” Lewis, a UW sophomore, said. “The population of non-drinkers is pretty spare and spread out, so it just seemed like a good idea to create a forum for non-drinkers to meet one another. The group gives freshmen an opportunity to start off away from the drinking scene and let other non-drinkers have a place to hang out.”
The idea for the student organization grew out of an online group called “Sober and Still Fun” that Lewis started on the website Thefacebook.com over winter break. Lewis at first invited a few friends to join, but as other UW students began joining the online group, demand for an event where non-drinkers could congregate increased.
“She started getting messages saying, ‘This is really great,’ and they wanted to hang out outside of Facebook,” Megan Kiedrowski, a UW sophomore, said.
Kiedrowski, Lewis’ roommate, also attended Friday night’s event.
“It went really well,” Kiedrowski said. “Different groups of people were walking around and introducing themselves to one another.”
Colin Harrison, a UW sophomore who went to the kickoff, echoed the sentiment.
“I immensely enjoyed meeting new people. I probably would have never met any of those people if I had not gone to this,” Harrison said, adding that he exchanged numbers with people at the event. “I will probably hang out with the people I met and do non-drinking activities.”
Harrison said he believes Sober Students On Campus is helpful because it gives non-drinkers the opportunity to support one another.
A wide range of students attended Friday’s event, from ex-drinkers who had taken part in UW’s drinking scene and people who had experienced alcoholism in their families to students who simply choose not to drink for personal reasons.
Lewis hopes the group will continue to be successful.
“We want to let other non-drinkers know that they are not alone in their choice and let them know there are other people who want to do the same things,” Lewis said.
Anonymous (February 21, 2005 @ 10:01am):
If you choose to booze you lose!
Anonymous (February 21, 2005 @ 11:37am):
If I can make out with random girls, etc. at these sober events, I'll give up alcohol.
Anonymous (February 21, 2005 @ 1:33pm):
Yeah - the "We Don't Deed Booze to Get Freaky" group would seem like a good idea.
Anonymous (February 22, 2005 @ 2:53am):
Although I am a "drinker" (whatever that means) I am in full support of such groups as "Sober Students on Campus". But I have to ask myself: what ever happened to moderation? I mean, do we have to choose between regressing to childhood (fingerpainting, playing board games) and drinking ourselves into oblivion so we can make out with "random girls"? Are there any grown-ups on campus? Clearly, something is wrong with our drinking culture, but we only seem to be able to jump between extremes...
