By Isabella Ubillus, crime, safety, and justice reporter
As the spring semester begins for Virginia Tech students, so does a familiar part of campus life, the party scene. For Hokie Wellness, their goal is to teach students safer ways to celebrate and still stay in control.
Virginia Tech’s Hokie Wellness has become a central hub for substance misuse prevention on campus. Annie Chalmers-Williams, Assistant Director for Substance Misuse Prevention, oversees programs that combine education, peer support and hands-on training to guide students in making safer decisions.
Since joining Hokie Wellness in 2020, Chalmers-Williams has brought over a decade of experience in clinical social work and substance use treatment, including working with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and youth aged 6 to 18 with the Juvenile Justice Treatment Continuum.
Her role focuses on all things prevention related to substance use as well as managing the IMPACT team, which facilitate workshops such as Party Positive for alcohol harm reduction, Higher Education for cannabis education and safety and REVIVE! for opioid overdose response training. Beyond managing the IMPACT team, she also manages the BASICS program, offering early educational interventions for students with infractions related to substance use aimed to provide a supportive environment rather than punishing students.
In an interview, Chalmers-Williams discussed how Hokie Wellness defines “safer partying”, trends she sees among students and the resources available on and off campus.
Her comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.
How do you define safe partying at Virginia Tech?
The first thing we talk about is that we can’t ever stay safe, we have to stay safer. We emphasize harm reduction, thinking about ways to make things safer.
Hokie Wellness teaches six main strategies: choosing if and when you are going to drink, pacing, hydration, tracking your drinks, eating properly and having a safe ride home.
Education about binge drinking and alcohol poisoning is also key. One of my favorite things to teach is the “Party Positive Zone”, which is an optimal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) between 0.00 and 0.06. We tell people that if they are going to party, we want you to party in that zone because you’re more likely to experience the euphoria that comes with alcohol without the negative side effects.
We have a Party Positive card that estimates the number of standard drinks to keep someone in that zone based on sex, body weight and time spent partying. We want to try to keep people from having negative experiences.
What are the biggest alcohol related problems that you see among students? Is there a difference between the beginning of the semester versus the end?
Our culture is steeped into alcohol, especially among college students. We’ve seen a rise in drinking and driving and DUIs. Binge drinking continues to be an issue. Health wise, drinking 10 drinks in one night is more harmful on your body and brain than drinking moderately throughout the week.
In the fall semester, we see younger students getting involved with substances as a way to connect socially, leading to early-on alcohol infractions, specifically in the dorms. By the end of the year, due to graduation, we see these similar situations with our students who are of an older age.
Are there additional steps that Hokie Wellness takes around big events, like football games or graduation?
Hokie Wellness tries to plan for that. We have our social media accounts pushing public health information and outreach on how to party safely. Hokie Wellness is part of the recovery community, and they have sober tailgates for students who want to enjoy the game day atmosphere without alcohol or other substances.
At the beginning of the school year, we do a lot of work during those weeks of welcome as well as having programming at GobblerFest. It’s about getting ahead and encouraging people to come and pay attention. We are aware of those higher risks and a goal we always have is to work harder to remind students to think about their safety and their futures.
What steps can students take to drink more responsibly?
The biggest thing is learning about it so that if you choose to drink, you know what you’re doing, because a lot of people don’t know what they’re doing. Have strategies to protect yourself. Start your night out early, hydrate, eat a good meal, count your drinks, pace yourself and make sure you have a safe ride home, that’s going to protect you. Learn all about it so that you’re in charge, not your friends or the alcohol, you.
How does Hokie Wellness address consent when it comes to party environments?
We do a lot of education on what consent means and teaching people when alcohol is present, most of the time, consent is not a thing you can do. We partner really closely with sexual violence prevention staff to get on the same page. When working with fraternities and sororities, we always embed consent in there, it’s in everything but we do more of a discussion then.
Besides alcohol, what other substance trends should students be aware of?
We do a lot of cannabis education because Virginia has only decriminalized it, but people think it’s legal. It puts them at risk for unhealthy use or legal risk. We spend time teaching people about the laws, so they can make good choices for themselves.
Through REVIVE!, we discuss opioids and the most common way that students are experiencing overdoses is through counterfeit pills. Cocaine is included in those conversations due to its risk of contamination.
Tobacco and nicotine support is currently in production. Right now, we do one-on-one sessions with students and referrals to Schiffert Health Center for medical and behavioral support.
What other resources are available for students that they might not be aware of?
We have useful links and resources on the Hokie Wellness website, making it a good first resource. On campus, Schiffert Health Center, Cook Counseling, TimelyCare and the recovery community offer both medical and mental health support. National resources such as SAMHSA, NIDA and RAINN provide additional help.
Our health department can help students get connected with resources such as free testing strips and Narcan. Rec Sports is also great, getting involved in physical activity can help with withdrawal as your body heals. Exercise is the way to build that capacity for your brain to start creating dopamine again.
If you could give students one piece of advice, what would it be?
A good simple strategy would be that you should not have more than one drink per hour. Pacing wise, that is probably the easiest thing to remember and the best way to pace. That would be my advice right now, stick to one drink an hour or less.
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