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PROGRAMMING
FOR NCAAW
Making your NCAAW
unique in design...
Bringing together the key players on campus, brainstorming creative themes
and gimmicks, and taking advantage of the national media that will be
available during October are all key items to the success of NCAAW on
your campus. But the heart and soul of NCAAW are the educational programs
that you will conduct on your campus during the observance! These offer
your best opportunity to create change in the individuals and the environment
on your campus. Here are five key suggestions for your group to consider
as you plan your programming schedule.
- Balance educational
and social programs.
One of your goals is to teach people some new information about personal
health issues and responsible decision-making. One of your goals is
to get people to look at personal behaviors and offer opportunities
for people to choose healthy lifestyles - lifestyles grounded in moderation
and the acceptance of personal responsibility for actions. It is also
important to give people a chance to have a good time, meet new people,
dance, laugh and enjoy themselves - maybe without the use of alcohol.
For some of our students, this will be a new experience! The best type
of NCAAW programming mixes serious information with plain old-fashioned
fun. Make sure that your programs serve a variety of goals, from offering
social alternatives, to providing hard-core education, to simply getting
people to think about an issue in a creative, unexpected way.
- Don’t fall
for the “numbers” game.
We all want our educational and social programming to be big hits. We
want lots of people to come and we want the whole campus to attend at
least one of our events. Who knows, they might! However, your efforts
cannot be judged solely on “how many people showed up.” Some
of your programs, especially those dealing with serious educational
sessions, like “Adult Children of Alcoholics” or “Preventing
Date Rape” might only draw 20-30 people. But those 20-30 people
will really want to be there, and those 20-30 people will be happy that
you planned this event for them. So, as you are planning your programs
you might want to keep three important things in mind. Go to where your
audience is. Don’t make them come to you. It is so much easier
for people to attend a program “on their own turf.” Program
in residence halls, in Greek houses, in the off-campus student lounge.
Maybe you want to take your programs to local hangouts! Host events
outside in high traffic areas. Here’s a new idea. Have students
host programs in their rooms! If 10 people come to a session, you can
throw pillows on the floor, make some microwave popcorn and suddenly
your program is packed! Not only that, people can talk easier and will
feel more comfortable in this environment. Don’t be afraid to plan
social programs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Granted, your
NCAAW dance on Friday night may not be the hottest event happening all
weekend, and maybe hundreds of people won’t show up, but you’ve
just done a great thing. You’ve provided a choice for those students
who want to have a great time on the weekend, but didn’t want to
go to the bars or off-campus parties. And finally, set reasonable expectations,
and plan your space appropriately. Having 40 people at a dance can make
for a great party! But remember that 40 people in a smaller room will
be more fun than 40 people in a gymnasium. Set reasonable expectations.
If they are exceeded, then great! You’ll know to plan for a bigger
turnout next year. Students don’t mind cozy (even cramped!) settings,
so make sure your space is appropriate for a modest turnout at any event.
- Some people like
to get information, but don’t want to have to “talk to anybody”
at this time.
Despite what we sometimes think, there are still many people who don’t
know enough information about how alcohol works, what addiction is,
how to help someone they care about who may have a drinking problem,
family issues, etc. Those people are curious about these issues, but
perhaps are not ready to talk to a campus counselor or peer educator.
In order to meet their needs, try to have places where people can pick
up the information they need. Set up display tables in the student union
or dining hall full of pamphlets and other educational resources that
people can take. Set up a VCR at a high visibility location, turn it
on, and let it run for an afternoon showing an informative tape on addiction
or helping a friend. For those people who want to get really creative,
hook up an answering machine to a campus extension and leaveeducational
messages. Have a special “this week only” hotline that people
can call to ask their questions about alcohol. Send e-mail messages
to everyone on the campus network. Get creative!
Even though people might not want to talk with someone at this time,
we still want to make sure they know there are places on campus they
can go if they do want to talk with someone later. NCAAW is a great
time to advertise services that are available all year! List the extension
of the counseling center or peer education office on all the materials
you hand out or post.
- Sometimes educational
“teasers” cause the best discussion.What’s an educational
teaser? The good example of a teaser is what you see at the movies for
previews.
For example, one of this summer’s movies, Austin Powers: Gold Member,
was promoted long before the release of the film. Each preview gave
you a little more information, a little more to the story line that
made you curious to know more about the film. Because the previews created
curiosity to know what was behind the latest spy spoof in the series,
this film became one of the most popular movies of the summer. We can
do the same thing with educational messages. Many campuses have used
the “Green Bean Campaign.” If you are not aware of the program
- it is very simple. A set of 4 posters is made, with the second one
replacing the first, the third replacing the second, etc. The key, however,
is the first poster. The entire poster is a giant green bean, and nothing
else is on the poster except for the words Green Bean. Hang these posters
all over campus (if you really want to have fun, have people carry cans
of green beans as well) and let them stay up for three or four days.
People lose their minds trying to figure out what all these green bean
messages are doing on campus!
Everyone is talking about it and no one knows the answer (except you,
of course). The next poster is a cartoon or photo of cans of green beans
hooked together like a six-pack. The caption reads “How many green
beans does it take to have a good time?” The third poster is a
cartoon or photo of a person holding a can of green beans with a caption
that reads “If you knew someone who couldn’t talk, couldn’t
laugh, dance or have fun unless they ate a few green beans, would that
concern you?” And the last poster simply reads, “If you could
talk to a friend about a green bean problem, could you talk to them
about an alcohol problem?” A list of campus phone numbers for a
counseling center, etc. are then provided.
Brainstorm some more of these educational teasers. The key is to raise
awareness and get people talking - and that’s certainly what happens!
- You don’t
have to be the expert, and you don’t have to do all of these programs
yourself. Use your resources!
We talked in the previous section about co-programming and co-sponsoring
with other campus organizations, and this is an excellent idea. Another
variation on this theme is to find out who the resources are in your
campus and community who can help with, or even present programs for
you. You don’t have to be the expert on every single student health
issue. How could you be? Still, this shouldn’t keep you from presenting
programs or handing out information on these topics.
- Use technology
in your program efforts.
Electronic media is attention-getting and free. If you campus has an
on-line newsletter, bulletin board or chat room, make use of them for
NCAAW. If you can develop a screen saver for NCAAW, have it available
for people to download and ask the computer lab to have it on all the
monitors. If you are doing a presentation for a class about alcohol
issues, visit some web sites and show people what information they can
find by doing a little surfing.
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PROGRAM
IDEAS FOR NCAAW
- Talk Show or
Game Show Format
What about staging your own talk show? Get peer educators to play various
outrageous roles and use a call-in line to explore issues like healthy
practices, relationships and personal ethics. Remember! Use lots of
sarcasm, confrontation and surprises. It helps if you have a really
funny show host. This is a great activity to do in residence hall lounges,
and you can do it for many small audiences throughout your NCAAW. Another
format might be to use the “Who Wants to Be a Milionaire?”
or “Hollywood Squares” game to relay alcohol abuse information
and encourage participation in a fun way!
- Up All-Nighter!
Many campuses are taking advantage of late night student hours and the
availability of their athletic facilities to plan highly interactive
programs. Take over your fitness center for midnight volleyball tournaments,
indoor mini-golf, Olympic type games, swimming contests, or a variety
of recreational sports events! This is a great way to involve your physical
education department or health education. In addition to the fun activities,
you can set up a massage clinic, serve a healthy midnight breakfast,
and teach some relaxation techniques. Get students to form teams from
their campus organization or residence hall. Get a celebrity student
team to compete against faculty!
- Take Aim at
Alcohol Abuse
Get your entire campus involved by sending out colorful 8.5 x 11 flyers
with a statistic about alcohol abuse on one side and an entry blank
and instructions on the opposite side. Instructions should direct people
to memorize their fact, complete the entry form, make a paper airplane
from their flyer, and meet at a certain location. If you have a multi-level
building with a balcony, this would be your best spot, or anywhere that
is highly visible. Create a colorful target area in the center of the
room and ask contestants to recite the statistic they received and fly
their plane toward the target. Of course, there should be good prizes
for those who get closest to the target. This is a great way to get
everyone on campus involved and helps you get important educational
messages out.
- Parking Lot
Campaigns
Select a well-traveled parking lot as a site to launch an awareness
campaign! Create a “Top Ten Reasons to Be Aware!” list and
distribute it on car windshields or antennae. You may even decide to
wash the car windshields so that car owners “can clearly see the
importance of NCAAW”. Get campus safety involved and do seat belt
checks and pass out promotional items as prizes for those who are buckled
up. Distribute your educational materials in the size, shape, and color
of your campus parking tickets; people will read it. Include a 10% off
coupon from your campus bookstore or snack bar on the ticket.
- The Great Tailgate
Tent Party
Combat the negative images of tailgating by sponsoring a fun non-alcoholic
event during one of your major athletic games. This event is perfect
to seek donations and sponsors. Get your members to whip up some great
mocktails, serve hot chocolate or specialty coffees if it’s cold.
Ask for pizza or sub sponsors to provide food. Pass out freebie promotional
items if budget allows and make sure you have educational information
about impaired driving available. Invite the crash dummies to serve
or to go through the stands to attract an audience at your event.
- Passport Party
There are two ways of looking at this program. First, you might have
various campus resource offices and organizations set up information
and refreshments in each of their areas. Issue passports to students
and guide maps that indicate where they must “travel” to collect
information and goodies, and get their passports stamped. It’s
a great way to point out campus resources, and fun to have a progressive
party. All stamped passports should be thrown into a bin for a grand
prize drawing at the conclusion of the event. A second approach might
be to develop a local community guide passport of fun local destinations
and things to do – places to eat, recreation options, historic
sights. Distribute the passport to students and have them get stamped
at the locations in your community listed in the passport with a grand
prize drawing at the end of the semester.
- Singing Telegrams/Balloon
Bouquets
Get some balloons imprinted with your NCAAW theme and take orders for
balloon bouquets, or if your group is very creative, singing telegrams.
This is a great way to fundraise as well as get your message across.
Get your items like helium, balloons, and string donated. Design healthy
messages to attach to the bouquets. Ask dining services to donate free
drink coupons to attach. If singing is your bag, come up with several
healthy message songs to popular tunes and send out the quartet to deliver.
(Hint: Get the person buying the telegram to designate the time and
place of delivery to save time in filling your requests.)
- Homecoming
Halftime
Get on the program and plan some wacky team competition for half-time
at the homecoming game, or make a parade float. You have a captive audience
and a highly visible event to get your group’s name and message
out there!
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COORDINATE
A DAY OF DIALOG AS AN OPENING EVENT FOR NCAAW
Purpose
The purpose of a Day of Dialog is to encourage students, faculty, staff,
alumni and community members on individual college and university campuses
to engage in a day-long (or a significant portion thereof) productive
discussion of alcohol-related problems and possible solutions. It is a
structured and facilitated discussion that is planned by and includes
representatives of each of the key stakeholders, and serves as a basis
for collaborative, campus-based action planning that contributes to cultural
change.
Concept
The Day of Dialog is, at its heart, a simple concept. To engage in a Day
of Dialog means simply to take the time to get the right group of people
into the right set of circumstances to allow meaningful discussion about
a topic of common concern. Because attitudes, traditions, policies, environments,
circumstances, and people will vary from campus to campus, each ‘Day
of Dialogue” effort will be unique. In this case, the “right
group of people” is some combination of those who share a commitment
to your particular campus and to the ideals of fraternity and sorority
life—chapter members and leaders, national staff, national and local
alumni volunteers, faculty and staff, and other.
The “right circumstances”
are those that provide a clear goal, an appropriate meeting space, a meaningful
agenda, a date and time that meets participants needs, and sufficient
structure to allow the discussion to progress. A “meaningful discussion”
is one where all participants have access to critical information, where
an atmosphere of trust and openness leads to honest sharing of ideas and
concerns, where the purpose is to accomplish a common goal, and where
one of the outcomes is a commitment to a next step or a plan. The “topic
of common concern” is the prevalence of high-risk drinking on college
campuses. The topic can be refined to focus on particular populations
like resident students, athletes, fraternity/sorority members, etc.
Rationale
Collaboration between the various parties is critical to the success of
any campus-based change effort. The experiences of campuses that have
already had such discussions can be shared and used by institutions that
have yet to take the step. The designation of a national Day of Dialog
can serve to spur the initiation of discussions that might not otherwise
begin.
Sponsor
The 2002 Day of Dialog Program is sponsored by NASPA Fraternity and Sorority
Affairs Knowledge Community and the Inter-Association Task Force on Alcohol
and Other Substance Abuse Issues. It is initiated in part through the
support of MJ Insurance. The program concept originated from the Greek
Summit, a group that brings together representatives of higher education
and international organizations to effect the change needed to help students’
behavior better reflect the founding principles of their organizations
and the missions of their educational institutions. The idea for a national
“Day of Dialogue” on the issues surrounding alcohol use within
the Greek community emerged from the 1999 meeting of the Summit and was
endorsed by the NASPA Fraternity/Sorority Network at its March, 2000 meeting.
To Participate
If your campus is interested in hosting a Day of Dialog during the 2002-2003
academic year, contact:
Tisa Mason
Day of Dialog Steering Committee Chair
Executive Director, Sigma Kappa Sorority and Foundation
317-872-3275 phone
tmason@sigmakappa.org
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