Pictured above: Students sample treats at a number of Chocolate Wasted display tables across campus. This year, events were held outside numerous residence halls, rather than in a single location, to promote social distancing.

Spanning the entirety of campus, Chocolate Wasted was held in six separate locations this year.

At each location, resident asssistants worked tables that were set up with chocolate snacks, flyers and pamphlets and Razorbacks Offering Accountability Resources (ROAR) buttons.

When students first arrived at the tables, they were checked to make sure they were wearing masks and socially distancing.

Afterwards, they scanned a large QR code that had been posted on the tables as a quick means to ‘check in’ to the event without having to pass around their student ID.  

After officially checking in, the resident assistants working the tables gave a quick overview of the dangers and consequences of uninformed college drinking before handing them a pamphlet that went into more detail.

For example, each year an estimated 1,825 college students die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. 

“Our goal is not to get students on our campus not to drink, but we want to help students make more responsible choices about their alcohol and substance consumption,” said Emery Gower, director of the substance education and alcohol resources program (SEAR), in a statement.

After learning about these safer and more responsible drinking habits, the students were given their choice of chocolate and an opportunity to mingle with the other students.  

Students’ Opinions

 

“I think everything has been done really well. [There is] a lot less in person contact and more flyers and pamphlets. It was very well thought out,”  said Hotz Hall resident Meghan McClure (left in picture).

Natalia Frolov-Nickels, a graduate assistant working in Futrall Hall and one of the organizers for this year’s Chocolate Wasted, said that “we didn’t want this to be an event that ends up being harmful for the students. We want this to be purely educational and a fun opportunity—one of the few opportunities that students have to actually be in person and meet one another.”