Health and Wellness Center wins national award

Author: Rachael Jennings

In 2004, Lynn Gordon Bailey, Jr. - "Gordie" - was found dead, his body written on with Sharpies, at the University of Colorado after an extreme hazing incident. If his friends had simply called for help, his life may not have ended so tragically. He is not alone.

Every day, six college and university students die from alcohol-related issues.

Every year, over 400,000 college students are injured due to alcohol.

Over 320 students have died this year.

The Gordie Foundation, founded in response to the tragedy that ended Gordie's life, has worked tirelessly to educate college students about the dangers of alcohol and the importance of awareness and responsibility - their slogan is fitting. "Save a life. Make the call."

This October, the Foundation held an event called National GORDIEday, during which they offered participating colleges and universities the challenge to design and execute programming about alcohol abuse, hazing and alcohol poisoning.

Jyoti Daniere, director of Health and Wellness Education at the College, along with a dedicated team of "Student Wellness Leaders," planned a series of unforgettable events around these issues.

Given $500 worth of free materials - from bandanas to carabiners to bottle openers with the Gordie symbol imprinted on them - Daniere and her staff took off running. The Health and Wellness Center had students sign a huge composite photo of Gordie. It was composed of thousands of tiny photos of other victims of alcohol abuse. The unnerving and powerful documentary "HAZE" was shown, and Travis Apgar, assistant dean of students at Cornell University spoke about his own traumatic hazing experiences as a rookie on the football team and as a fraternity pledge.

When the Gordie Foundation reviewed the documentation and photos from the College's programming, they commended Middlebury College by selecting the school as the winner of the best overall National GORDIEday event for 2008.

The Health and Wellness Center has not stopped there. They will participate in National GORDIEday every year and they continue to advocate education about the dangers and misconceptions of alcohol use and abuse.

Daniere stresses that part of the problem on this campus is the falsely formed ideas about drinking: it is actually a relatively small percentage of students who actually abuse alcohol consistently.

In the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey conducted earlier this year - in which 604 students participated - students reported that six out of 10 students drink between zero and five alcoholic beverages a week, while 22.7 percent of students do not even drink.

"The perception is that all Middlebury students are drinking many drinks, several times during the week," said Daniere, "The Core Survey showed that many of our students chose to drink moderately and only once a week."

Daniere hopes to work with the idea of social norming. She will begin with a poster campaign that presents statistics such as these - she wants to stress what is really happening versus what students believe is happening on campus.

"We want students to realize that their peers do not drink as much as they think, and that you don't have to drink that much to fit in," Daniere explained.

Daniere recalled those frightening statistics. "Six kids a day? It's just unacceptable."

She went on to discuss the death of Nick Garza. "Statistically, it was probably our turn [to lose a student]. I think this is a preventable situation. We do not need to lose another student to an alcohol-related death."

The statistics, Daniere explained, are completely remedial.

"We can change those statistics," she said. "But I'm not at the parties. You are. You have to make this a peer-to-peer effort. Middlebury students need the skills to step forward and say, 'Are you alright? Do you need help?'"

The Health and Wellness Center plans on advocating the need for a supportive and empowered community with further programming and outreach, which they have found and continue to find very successful in terms of alcohol awareness and other areas such as healthy dating, perspectives on sexuality and work with stress.

"I continue to believe that students are very interested in this idea of alcohol abuse prevention - how things could be done differently," Daniere said. "People care about their friends. I'm convinced that we can have fewer bystanders. I'm convinced that we can change this campus."

How does Daniere want the campus to change? She envisions a safer, caring environment with more trained and aware students - more students able to recognize when someone needs help. The Health and Wellness Center hopes to provide more training and dialogue around intervention.

"We have these students who go to Africa and raise vegetables and save babies," said Daniere. "They have this great altruistic spirit of service. They need to bring that here."

She urges students to question what they see. When someone is slumped on the curb, unable to walk. When a girl is being dragged off to another room at a party. When a friend is stumbling and not talking coherently.

"Do the right thing," she urged. "Feel empowered. Reach out and help."