As UW-Madison students awoke with pounding heads the morning after St. Patrick’s Day, one house fellow began a floor-wide initiative to encourage students to find alternative activities to drinking.
Ogg Hall House Fellow Bob Freidel planned educational but fun activities for his house, Rundell House, during the week of March 18 through March 25 that encouraged students to enjoy Madison without consuming alcohol.
“I felt there was a need for promoting the idea of a changed drinking culture on campus,” Friedel said. “I’ve been getting feelings that the culture of drinking at Madison is having negative consequences on students and I wanted to encourage residents to find different activities to do on weekends that are substance free.”
Events included a speed dating night and a study hall in the hallway followed by a trip to the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games.
But Freidel said the final night’s activity was the most popular, as students competed in a scavenger hunt called “Bob’s Adventure Night” that lead students everywhere from the Abe Lincoln statue to plunging into Lake Mendota.
Resident Alyssa Bischmann said the night was one of her favorite of the semester.
“It just shows that you can have a lot of fun without alcohol and sometimes it can even be more fun,” Bischmann added.
While Freidel said students initially thought a ‘dry’ week seemed too idealistic, he said it gained momentum once the floor’s students took over and encouraged their peers to participate.
“That is probably what the main turning point was,” Freidel said. “It was getting the main residents on board and kind of turning it from an event that was organized by me to an event which was something they all believed in.”
To legitimize the week, Freidel asked his residents to sign an agreement at the end of the week confirming that they did not drink.
Forty of the 41 students signed.
Still, Bischmann said she would encourage students to enjoy the city sober, without it being an organized initiative.
“Madison is a really cool city and it has a lot of activities and some things you can do that you can’t really do if you’re just partying all the time,” she said.
