Category: Highlights

Collegiate Recovery Week: April 15th-19th

Posted on by Haley Mangette

April 15 through the 19th, 2024 has been named “Collegiate Recovery Week” by the Association of Recover in Higer Education (ARHE). This week supports events in the collegiate community that aim to “celebrate the joys of recovery, share stories [of recovery], and uplift one another through community,”.

College students have been shown to have higher rates of binge drinking and misuse of prescription stimulants than noncollege young adults. Behaviors like binge drinking have shown an increase in the likelihood of developing an alcohol use disorder. In 2019, it was estimated approximately 840,000 full-time student attending college would be in recovery. 

For those in the recovery journey, community plays a pivotal role. It establishes a supportive network that fosters understanding, empathy, and encouragement. Look below for some ideas on how you can support those in recovery!

Ways you can show support for those in recovery:

  1. Choose activities that aren’t centered around drinking.
    • Consider planning some nondrinking outings! If you and your friends find yourselves going out to wine or beer tasting, bars, or parties, try going to a movie, bowling or a nice hike. 
  2. Be mindful of how you talk about drinking.
    • Talking about your latest win at a drinking contest or a night of drunken escapades can be annoying or distressing to someone who’s in recovery. If your friend tells you outright something is making them uncomfortable or if you get the feeling they are becoming annoyed, simply apologize and change subjects.
  3.  Listen closely and be patient.
    • If a nondrinker does decide to confide in you, listen and be patient as they navigate through some hard topics. Recognize that for people who have an alcohol use disorder, abstaining from alcohol can be difficult — even if they’ve been sober for years.
  4. Wear purple to celebrate collegiate recovery.
    • Purple was selected as the recovery movement’s official color.

Participate in our quilt project by creating a square.

We will be in the lower Atrium from 4 to 5:30 p.m. with materials to create a square that will be integrated into a quilt to be hung around our campus.

The results are in… Wellness Survey ’23

Posted on by Haley Mangette

In May of 2023, First-years, Sophomores, and Juniors were asked to participate in the Wellness Survey, a brief survey asking about alcohol consumption, protective behaviors, and the perception of the campus in relation to alcohol use.

Overall, 80% of participants reported consuming some amount of alcohol at some point in their life. 75% of participants reported consuming alcohol since the beginning of the academic year (September 2022). Almost half (45%; n= 88) of those participants reported consuming alcohol biweekly or weekly. Students reported most frequently consuming alcohol at off-campus houses and apartments, or at campus-owned residential buildings and houses.

Students were asked to report about the last time they “partied” or socialized, and how many drinks they consumed over the course of how many hours. Most students reported consuming less than 5 drinks, staying below the nationally defined threshold of binge drinking. Male participants, though a small sample, were more likely to participate in high-risk or binge drinking.

Want to know more about the results? Look out Winter 2024 for a review of the data and future initiatives.

We hope you had a “smashing” good time!

Posted on by Haley Mangette

We are thankful for all of you who attended and helped make it such a smashing success (pun intended!). It was a night of release of stress, and frustration but also of laughter, and joy.

Thank you to all who donated pumpkins! Your donation created a lot of fun and supported composting efforts on-campus and throughout the community. We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you.

Mocktails and Mingling

Posted on by Haley Mangette
Table with drink pitchers and glasses.
Three long scrolls of paper hung on the wall behind a table with a black tablecloth. On the table is a orange sign indicating the project (Drugs-Free Schools and Communities Act) and two printed reports laid on the table.

On March 17th, members across campus gathered for Mocktails to learn about some of the efforts to address alcohol and other drugs misuse. The event featured tables displaying different initiatives, including:

If you are interested in assisting in development of any of the programs listed above, please reach out to Haley Mangette, Wellness and CARE Coordinator, at haley.mangette@kzoo.edu or 269.337.7460.