Students remove fliers to prevent binge drinking

FULLERTON, Calif. – California State University-Fullerton recently hired a student to take down unauthorized on-campus postings and advertisements, like fliers on cars. \nThe move is a final part of the State Incentive Grant from the government dealing with alcohol education that ends this fall, officials said. \nThe mission is to discourage binge drinking and other forms of irresponsible drinking, especially those that link drinking with sex. \nThe unnamed student will go out twice every week and canvas the campus and look for postings or advertisements that do not bear the school’s official stamp of approval. \nParticular focus will be given to fliers that advertise alcohol or drink specials to students, said Associate Dean of Student Life Esiquio Uballe. \nThe campus requires that all fliers be approved before posting, and it is unlikely that any flier advertising alcohol would be approved, Uballe said. \nAs for fliers left on car windows and windshields, it is written in a Fullerton city ordinance that the action is a misdemeanor. Campus police can and will enforce the code, Uballe said. \nHowever, one on-campus organization leader does not support the ordinance. \n“It’s annoying, but is not annoying enough to be worth a misdemeanor,” said Nehal Shahin, senior, president of the Middle Eastern Student Society. \nThe society just finished advertising for their first off-campus club event, which included drink specials. \n“We just wanted to have fun; finals are stressful,” Shahin said. \nBut Uballe, whose office deals with offenders, said the majority of advertisements for drink specials come from clubs and venues that are not associated with any on-campus organization. \n“They’ll send out their employees or whatever to pretty much litter the campus with their advertisements and promotions,” Uballe said. \nThe student employee’s job is to collect samples of this type of advertisement, usually posted with contact information, so the Dean of Students office can respond accordingly. \nThe usual form of response is a letter written to the manager of the event letting them know that CSUF does not appreciate their unsolicited advertisements and encourages them to seek approval beforehand. \nThey are also sent a copy of the campus’s advertisement and alcohol policy, Uballe said. \n“All we can do is continue to let them know that what they are doing is not accepted,” Uballe said. \nBy hiring this student, the campus can focus on discouraging these kinds of advertisements, a form of “harm reduction,” said Jackie Gogan, health educator and coordinator of the alcohol education grant. \n“We’re not saying don’t have fun, but just be responsible,” Gogan said. “These advertisements aren’t necessarily promoting responsibility.” \nThe recent hiring of this student is one of the final steps in achieving the goals set forth by the four-year alcohol education grant that ends in September.\nTo receive the grant, CSUF created an outline of the goals they would like accomplished, which they are now racing to finish by September. \nThe federal grant was given to the state of California, which it in turn distributed to its universities. \nGoals for the incentive, Gogan said, include trying to reduce alcohol-related problems at housing on and off campus, discouraging the provision of alcohol to underage students, promoting alcohol awareness and discouraging unsolicited on-campus advertisements. \n“Our main focus is education,” Gogan said. “Not promoting alcohol.”