To counter alcohol consumption by students on campus during Halloween, the Wisconsin Union will provide students with alternative sources of entertainment during the Freakfest 2008.
Students and faculty of various organizations contributed to organizing sober activities for those students who prefer to keep Halloween casual.
We're looking forward to Halloween weekend '¦ The students' youth program here at the Wisconsin Union want to offer some alternatives to State Street,"" Susan Dibbell, assistant director to the Wisconsin Union, said at a Policy Alternative Community and Education Project meeting Monday.
According to the University of Wisconsin Police Department website, the Offices of the Dean of Students, Residents Life and University Health Services are helping to provide these alternative programs.
""Historically there haven't been very many events during Halloween week because people would figure that no one is going to go because they're all going to go downtown,"" Marc Kennedy, communications director of the Wisconsin Union, said.
The events provided during the designated ""Shriek Week"" include radioactive bowling at Union South, scary movies and ghost-story telling at Memorial Union. A haunted campus tour will be held Wednesday night.
Sober campus events are not unique to Halloween. There are multiple programs on campus that encourage and provide sober activities every weekend of the year.
WisChoices, a new program that aims to educate students about alcohol use, offers members the opportunity to shadow police officers at football games and in their patrol cars on weekends. They can also go to detox to observe how it functions.
UW sophomore Julie Chou, a WisChoices member, said she thinks drinking has become a part of the culture at UW-Madison.
""If you're not participating [in drinking] you're sometimes on the outside,"" she said.
WisChoices and other student organizations work to remind students they do not have to feel like an outsider by providing alternative activities and programs to drinking.
