With an inflatable inner tube around her waist, journalism junior Shannon Maule stopped people walking by the UA Mall and asked about their plans for spring break. Students signed the tube as a pledge that they would be safe during break from March 12 to March 20.
Maule was collecting signatures as part of the UA’s Spring Break Safety Fair on Thursday. The event gave students the chance to obtain a wide variety of information on staying safe during the break, whether they were planning to travel or stay on campus.
The event was mainly sponsored by by the University of Arizona Police Department, the Associated Students of the University of Arizona and the UA Parents and Family Association.
Some of those present at the event sought to educate students planning to drink alcohol while on break.
“”Just be safe and know your limit,”” said Lynn Reyes, an alcohol and other drug specialist for Health Promotion and Preventive Services at Campus Health Service.
“”Count your drinks. Pace yourself with drinks. If you even choose to drink.””
Debra Cox-Howard, a mental health clinician at Counseling and Psychological Services, gave out a survey to help students become aware of their drinking limits and know the results it can have.
“”We want students to be healthy, of course not only during spring break, but all the time,”” Cox-Howard said.
Student and staff volunteers at the CAPS booth conducted an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test on students, which asked 10 questions regarding how much or how frequently they drink. Students then received a risk analysis of their habits.
“”What we actually found (was that) a lot of students aren’t drinking as much to put them at high risk,”” Reyes said.
The Freshman Class Council was also in attendance “”trying to get every part of UA involved,”” according to Alexis Ortega, a council member and criminal justice freshman.
“”Clearly all of us are college students,”” Ortega said, “”but we want to reach out so students traveling stay safe and are not being stupid.””
Studying during spring break
For those students staying on campus during spring break, the UA Main Library is staying open at special hours. The library staff wanted to inform students how to stay safe while using the facilities and how to report any issues.
Patricia Ballesteros, a senior library information associate, warned students that the library is currently experiencing safety issues which call for enforcement. She said that since the library is a federal repository and on a land grant institute, it must be open to the public.
“”We have had problems with computer users viewing pornography, people coming in with hygiene problems where odor becomes too distracting for students to study and open alcohol containers on computers,”” Ballesteros said.
The library does not use passwords or logins to increase security due to their commitment to provide high accessibility to the entire community. The library is currently working with UA lawyers and UAPD to make sure each case is handled accordingly.
“”We have to have a complaint, then we can take our code of conduct and go talk to the person who is causing the disturbance,”” Ballesteros said. She added that if the person is a repeat offender or if the situation is grave enough, the police will be called immediately.
David Buffington, a library information associate who attended the fair, advised students to report the disturbance via the chat option available on the library’s website.
“”You can chat with staff at the desk and we can take care of it,”” he said.
