The slogan for the education program, “Option b - choose to drive sober,” was formulated by a group of HSU students and staff to spread the message campus-wide about the grave risks of drinking and driving.
During the next 14 months, educational programs will be coordinated and delivered throughout the University, promoting awareness of DUI consequences: incarceration, legal costs approaching $10,000 per arrest, interruption of work and studies, serious injury and death.
University Police Officer John Packer, one of the key personnel coordinating Humboldt State’s participation in the educational campaign, said, “We don’t want students to choose option a, drinking and driving. We want them to think, to say, to choose option b – choose to drive sober.
The initiative is a grant-funded program called the College DUI Corridor Safety Project. It was awarded to the Humboldt Area Office of the California Highway Patrol in response to a successful grant application submitted last year by outgoing CHP-Humboldt Area Commander Captain Steve Pudinski.
Although most of the $300,000, 14-month grant will go to CHP, APD and UPD for officer overtime salaries targeting driving under the influence violations, more than $60,000 is earmarked for Humboldt State’s “option b” public education campaign.
The grant period runs from September 1, 2007 through October 31, 2008.
College DUI Corridor Safety Projects such as this are administered by the CHP and California’s Office of Traffic Safety, using federal dollars from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The projects are designed to reduce DUI-related fatalities and injuries and the highway collisions that occur in and around university campuses. They are most affected by student drinking-and-driving behavior.
Such programs have been successful at San Jose State and Fresno State and another is in progress at UC Santa Barbara. Locally, a multi-agency task force will convene to take an aggressive approach to anti-DUI enforcement activities, which might include bar checks, roving DUI patrols on and off the HSU campus and DUI checkpoints.
“Over the next year or so, we will see some tan highway patrol uniforms mixed in with the familiar police navy blue as HSU, APD and CHP all pool our resources to target the dangerously drinking driver,” said HSU Police Chief Tom Dewey.
Specific activities in the “option b” public awareness campaign will include research-based educational programs, guest speakers, special events, a social norms program, peer education and DUI prevention efforts on campus and in surrounding areas of Arcata.
“Although part of the outreach will be increased police visibility and targeted enforcement, the University intends to deliver a strong and widespread educational message to choose option b,” Chief Dewey said.
Money has been set aside for HSU to recruit and hire an alcohol education coordinator for the initiative and the University is accepting job applications for the opening through September 21. More information about the position and how to apply can be found at http://www.humboldt.edu/~hsuhr/vacancies.html.
“Sometimes our students are having so much fun with their friends, they lose sight of the larger picture,” Officer Packer emphasized. “Choices they make now can forever deny them opportunities in academics, athletics and their future profession. We don’t want to lose a single one of our students, whether tonight or years from now, in a DUI accident.”
Humboldt State News and Information 707/826-5105 psm7001@humboldt.edu