Acadia alumni group wants to revive program to change university's drinking culture

Acadia University's alumni association wants to change the drinking culture at the school.

The group is trying to relaunch the Red and Blue Crew, which began in 2012 after an alcohol-related death of an Acadia student.

It wasn't maintained because of limited resources. The program aimed to help students manage their relationship with alcohol.

A four-year pilot project would create a peer-to-peer support network with full-time staff and funding for programming to improve education and behaviour. 

"It's an initiative to bring forward to the campus community and the student body as a whole," said Kelton Thomason, who is on the alumni association's board of directors.

One of the goals is to grow the initiative so that most students are either involved or know someone who is. 

Members of the crew wouldn't have specific duties or work shifts. They would be trained to help students who have unsafe drinking practices.

Not a response to parties

Thomason said the the project is not a response to the recent parties that led to students being arrested and property damaged in the residential area around the school in Wolfville, N.S..

He said alumni just want to support off-campus students.

"That's what this program is," Thomason said. "From the alumni perspective, it's about giving our students the greatest opportunity for success and I'm proud the association was interested, at least, in the preliminary discussion around this initiative."

Students would be engaged regularly throughout the project to help it succeed this time, Thomason said. 

"What's really exciting to me about the possible relaunching of Red and Blue Crew, and, I think, adapting it from what it was originally introduced as, is just centralizing student support," said Sadie McAlear, president of Acadia Student Union. 

"I mean really emphasizing harm-reduction practices and introducing them on a more peer-to-peer level."

McAlear said the narrative of university drinking culture is not unique to Acadia, but it may get more attention because the university is in a small community.

Asking for support

The alumni association would cover the majority of the $180,000 annual cost, but is asking for help from the university, town and student union.

Wolfville's town council will consider a request to provide $25,000 annually during upcoming budget deliberations.

"It is a good thing," said Mayor Wendy Donovan. "It shouldn't just be the town or Acadia saying, 'You know, this is what you have to do'. It would be really nice if the students had an opportunity to be partners in community harmony."

The university wants to see more evidence before committing $50,000, said James Sanford, executive director of student services. 

Sanford said it's not unusual for the university to enter these partnerships, and it is a good idea to look at how to support off-campus students.

When it comes to talking about drinking culture, he said it's about making sure nothing bad happens to anyone.

"What we're really focused on is making sure that while that's part of an experience, it's not the only reason for the experience," Sanford said.