Red Watch Band 2.0

Over the next couple weeks, the Wellness Center and its Peer Educators will be going out into the Marquette community to present Red Watch Band 2.0 to organizations who chose to participate.

Red Watch Band 2.0 is an alcohol safety related presentation that focuses on safe drinking, alcohol overdose prevention, and the importance of supporting those who denote themselves as abstainers. By collecting data from each organization prior to the presentation, the office can tailor each event to that specific group and their needs. Because everyone in the group has received the original Red Watch Band training as a first-year students or of their year of transfer (for transfer students), the presenters can truly focus their attention on the data collected and where the organization may be facing unknown challenges.

The pre-survey is focused on each member’s knowledge about themselves in terms of safety measures and comfortability around alcohol and how they think other members of the group feel about the same topics. This allows for a comparison between what is occurring and what is just incorrect assumptions about others. This is known as the Social Norming Theory, and it can be described as a student modeling their behavior after their misperceptions of how they believe their peers think and act.

The concept is addressed in the presentation by the comparison of individual data to group data, so that the organization and its individuals can see the Social Norming Theory in action. The goal of Red Watch Band 2.0 is to align the organization’s values with the University’s policies on alcohol consumption and safety.

The major focus points are to reeducate the organization on important safety measures such as how to recognize alcohol poisoning, how to call for help, how to ensure that those who identify as abstainers (nonalcohol drinkers) have a place in all group activities, and how to improve overall coherency within the group and what they expect of each when it comes to alcohol consumption. Essentially, this program will help members get a sense of how their organization feels about alcohol and have a space for an open discussion about their beliefs.

Red Watch Band 2.0 will be given to sororities, fraternities, and other potential interested organizations on campus during the rest of the Spring 2022 semester. The office is excited to collaboratively get this message out and help improve campus safety and wellness one organization at a time.

If you are a Marquette affiliated organization and would like to participate in Red Watch Band 2.0, please reach out to the Wellness Center through email at WellnessandPrevention@marquette.edu