Have you seen the obnoxious posters in the Union? Have you received countless emails wondering what the heck they are about? What is this mysterious Alcohol Screening day?

Aside from the prizes (yes, there are prizes), which are heavily advertised in the posters and emails, this event holds value on an institutional level that is more influential than a 3-minute massage in the email. This year Peer Health launched the Peer to Peer program for the first-year class, which provided 30-minute conversations about alcohol and the social scene at Bowdoin for every member of the class of 2017. This time gave first-years a chance to reflect on their experiences and come to their own realizations about their own drinking at Bowdoin thus far: were they disappointed with college house parties? Did they feel uncomfortable around floormates drinking when they weren’t? Were they drinking too much? Peer Health members hardly spoke—giving first-years the opportunity to come to their own conclusions.

Tomorrow Peer to Peers will be coming to the Union in the form of Alcohol Screening Day, but this time every student gets a chance to reflect. These conversations however, will only take 5 minutes and will be based off a short anonymous survey taken before the similarly anonymous conversations with Peer Health and A-Team members. The program is designed to both assess a campus pulse on alcohol use and detect patterns of abuse and to facilitate self-reflective goal-oriented conversations with students about their tactics for navigating the alcohol scene on campus.

How do we attract students to this event? That’s where the prizes come in: free food, pub gift cards, and more, but best of all free massages for 5 minutes of your time.

So be there. Smith Union. 12:30 – 4:30pm.