What percentage of VCU students doesn’t smoke cigarettes? If you know the answer, you could win a free iPod.
Student Health Services is sponsoring a raffle for a video iPod as part of its “Party Smart” campaign. To enter, students must answer four fill-in-the-blank questions at www.yourstrategy.org.
The Party Smart campaign’s mission is to promote strategies for partying safely and to correct misperceptions about students’ health habits. For example, many people think the vast majority of students smoke. In fact, almost three-fourths don’t.
“We’re a model program for alcohol and drug abuse prevention, one of seven college programs nationally,” said Linda Hancock, assistant director of the Office of Health Promotion.
The money for the iPod comes from a $75,000 grant awarded to VCU by the U.S. Department of Education. The grant also funds media such as posters for heath promotions and the Party Smart strategy Web site. The site has information on how the statistics are gathered and strategies for staying safe when going out.
Hancock said her office gathered the statistics to get people to understand reality. She said she wants people to realize that it’s fun to go out, but it’s fun to stay safe, too. Hancock said the iPod giveaway in the spring semester was such a success that the Office of Health Promotion decided to do it again.
Sophomore Kriston Proffitt was surprised by some of the information. When VCU students party, most have four or fewer drinks, and only 28 percent smoke, the surveys show.
“It was kind of shocking to read that,” Proffitt said. She said she might enter the raffle because the answers would be right at her fingertips: They’re online.
The Office of Health Promotion has collected data about student health since spring 2002. The statistics are the answers to the questions on the raffle’s online entry form.
The numbers also can be found on the back of the Fifth Pocket, the winning idea in a Party Smart strategy contest. It is a waterproof, virtually indestructible envelope that can fit into your jeans but is big enough for a valid ID and a little cash for a cab ride home.
Campus residents received the Fifth Pockets in their school mailboxes, but anyone can pick one up at the Commons Information Desk or at Student Health.
The Commons Information Desk went through a basketful of Fifth Pockets quickly at the beginning of the school year, said Annie Wright, a desk employee.
The deadline for entering the raffle is midnight on Nov. 7. The winner will be notified by e-mail and presented with the iPod on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Commonwealth Ballroom.
The presentation will be followed by a performance by comedian Ren