410 Forum — News
Focusing Attention On Students' Needs
By Meagan Birely
Drug abuse at the University of Colorado made headlines in 2006 when a startling 4.3 percent of hospitalized college students were treated for prescription pill abuse. Out of control drinking with deadly consequences at Colorado State University made the evening news in 2004 when a 19-year old died from alcohol poisoning. One organization is trying to bring prevention through education on these subjects so that the University of Northern Colorado’s name does not appear in headlines like these.
The UNC Center for Peer Education serves a variety of purposes on campus. CPE’s mission is to educate and bring awareness about drugs and alcohol to the student body. The CPE focuses on education and prevention throughout the year. UNC’s Center for Peer Education is reshaping the structure of the program to better suit students. And new coordinator Kirsten Dersham, a sophomore nursing major, wants to see these goals met this year.
These goals that the CPE leaders want to work on this year are bingo, drug awareness and student counseling.
Dersham was hired by the Student Representative Council as the CPE assistant coordinator for this year. Dersham will work with the coordinator to plan and carry out events.
This year, the CPE leaders want to bring alternative, fun activities to the student body while informing students about drugs and alcohol.
Dersham said that members of CPE recognize that students will be faced with situations surrounding drugs and alcohol. CPE leaders want to advertise solutions to these situations.
“Like if you see this, this is how to go about it,” Dersham said referring to situations involving drugs or alcohol.
One of the student activities that the CPE leaders started is bingo.
The idea of bingo is to give students a fun, alternative activity to drinking. Bingo is at 8:30 p.m. on every other Wednesday night in the University Center. It has been a big success in attendance Dersham said. At the last bingo game, Feb. 27, about 300 students attended.
Bingo has been a place where CPE leaders can talk to students solely about the affects of drinking, but this year CPE leaders will be turning their attention to a different kind of drug problem on campus.
“We are going to focus more on bringing awareness to prescription drug abuse,” Dersham said. “Students don’t understand that they are in fact harmful.”
Prescription medicines are being abused more and more. According to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Web site, the number of young adults who abuse these pills has jumped from 400,000 to over 2 million in a span of 20 years.
“Students need to be informed about the consequences of giving out prescription drugs that are prescribed to them and only them,” Dersham said.
CPE is looking to bring attention to this rising trend because cases of abuse of prescription drugs have skyrocketed in the past few years.
Along with drug, alcohol and prescription drug awareness CPE will be working this semester with the university on a new project.
UNC wants to implement a tobacco free campus by the fall of 2009.
As of now, UNC has designated smoking areas, but the goal is to get tobacco use completely off of campus grounds.
“There is a lot involved, and we have really just gotten started,” said Rachel Reddick, the tobacco coordinator for CPE. “This will be a huge step forward for the university.”
Awareness and education is good for the student body, but sometimes individuals need more attention. This is where the “new” CPE can help.
“CPE is going to branch out a little more towards a resource,” Dersham said.
This year, CPE will be a branch of the counseling center.
Evan Welch, the director of student activities, is happy to see CPE go under the umbrella of the counseling center.
“Being under the counseling center will be good for the students,” Welch said. “When information like this is coming from peers and not administration it is a much better tool.”
CPE volunteer counselors just completed a certifying course in confidentiality.
“We will now be able to talk to students and help them if they want to quit smoking or they are having problems with another substance,” Dersham said.
The counseling center wanted to have a service for students that was more “peer-to-peer.”
“I believe students drug and alcohol use isn’t always recreational,” Welch said. “It is usually a coping mechanism. It is usually a response, but there are a lot of reasons to abuse. Having these peer counselors will really help students holistically.”
Students now have another resource on campus to turn to if they need help. The Center for Peer Education’s leaders are ready to tackle the issues such as alcohol, substance and tobacco abuse.
Center for Peer Education
• Location – Student Activities office, upstairs in the University Center; room 2037
• Hours – 9 a.m.-5 p.m Monday-Friday.
• Phone Number – (970) 351-2065
• Coordinator – Cory Wilson
• Assistant Coordinator – Kirsten Dersham
• Web site: http://www.unco.edu/studentactivities/student_serv/ss_cpe.htm
