In order to curtail high-risk drinking among first-year students, the Office of Health Promotion has been placing posters featuring facts about alcohol and other drugs in bathroom stalls of first-year dormitories, after a survey showed that students may have a misperception of the level of alcohol use at the University.
The series is entitled "U.Va.'s The Real Grounds" and includes seven different posters that will be rotated about every month.
The posters are part of a social norms campaign begun in 1998.
Social norms marketing is the attempt to raise awareness about various social behaviors, including alcohol and drug use, to University students.
University Social Marketing Coordinator Elena Bertolotti said the campaign began because there is a "tendency among people in general to misperceive the amounts of drinking and smoking among their peers."
One of the posters instructs how to care for an intoxicated person; another describes the symptoms of alcohol poisoning.
The posters are based on a survey conducted last year of 888 random first-year students.
Students responded that they drink on average between zero and four drinks per week.
Students also indicated that they believe other University students drink about 10 drinks per week, Bertolotti said.
Despite the high number, she said she said the results are in line with national numbers.
The results of the survey were used to determine the common misperceptions about smoking and alcohol among students and what information first years may need to have to combat them.
In addition, some Resident Staff members received training about social norms.
Reaction to the posters among first-year students has been mixed, Bertolotti said.
"Some students don't trust the data," she said, but there has been some positive feedback.
First-year Architecture student Katie James said she has seen the posters and thinks they carry a powerful message.
She said the location of the posters ensures she will read them. "They're in the stall right in front of your face," she added.
Although the posters are being read, Bertolotti said they are only one step in the process of alcohol and drug education.
"It's not a cure-all," she said. "This is just one approach of the many that should be tried"
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