Elliot Steeves – Staff Writer

The 100 Hour Challenge, an initiative designed to promote on-campus reduction in individual alcohol consumption and marijuana usage, kicked off once again on Wed Feb. 15.

Students who register for the initiative will either spend 100 hours away from binge drinking or abstain completely from alcohol. Similarly, they can either reduce or eliminate usage of marijuana. The challenge is described by the Gustavus Adolphus website as, “a campus-wide initiative to promote and affirm healthy choices surrounding alcohol, while demonstrating community support for Gusties who already live by this choice.”

In order to promote this year’s launch, the Peer Assistants ran a table outside the GustieWELL office from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., serving wings and mozzarella sticks as a bonus to encourage registration.

The Peer Assistants held several other promotional events for the challenge over the course of a week. The LineUS Improv Comedy troupe made an appearance with a game of bingo in the Evelyn Young Dining Hall on Feb 15. Winners of bingo were given different gift cards of their choosing. Additionally, there was a digital health workshop entitled, “Digital Cravings” on Feb 16 in the Heritage Room, with Andrew Archer from Minnesota Mental Health Services presenting. 

On Feb 17, there was a co-planned event with the Campus Activities Board entitled “Last To Leave The Box.” Finally, a Make Your Own Coffee Bar is planned for Saturday, Feb 18, outside the GustieWell which will be followed by an open inflatable obstacle course in the Lund Center.

“It’s affirming to know that there are lots of students who look forward to the 100 Hour Challenge,” Junior Jacob Duncan said. Duncan has been a Peer Assistant since 2021. “[We] get a few hundred participants each year consistently,” he said.

 The challenge has found many results from students seeking to lower their alcohol usage. As noted on one of the event’s many informational posters, 86 percent of the 783 undergraduate students who took the pledge reported an “increased perception of support,” for students who do not drink, and 74 percent reported “personal benefits,” from the decision not to drink over the duration of the 100 hours. Of further note was the diverse array of students that took last year’s pledge; with 30 percent of participants being First-years, 40 percent Sophomores, 36 percent Juniors, and 33 percent Seniors.

Duncan believes that the choice students have of how much to abstain from either alcohol or marijuana is a key to the program’s success. “There are people ranging from abstaining completely, to people who choose to just stop binge drinking. There is a wide range of what people can choose to do,” Duncan said. 

For Duncan, another part of the success of the challenge was how students could take their own initiative. “It’s zero pressure, it gives students full control over how they want to go about it, and how they want to define it,” Duncan said.

The Gustavus Peer Assistants (in a post on Instagram promoting the challenge) discussed binge drinking and its effects on students. They wrote that binge drinking is defined as any level of alcohol consumption that elevates blood alcohol content above .08 in under two hours. They further noted that for men, this normally consists of five drinks in two hours, while four drinks are required in the same time frame for women.

A pair of informational posters in Jackson Campus center detailed the negative effects of smoking marijuana on student academics. Some key information from the posters is that marijuana directly affects several areas of the brain responsible for functions such as memory, learning, and coordination. Additionally, it noted that 62 percent of Gusties have never used marijuana.

Meghan Rhuble, the Interim Director of Wellness Education, commented that while improvements have been made in terms of on-campus health around alcohol and marijuana, it is still a real problem.

“Since the pandemic, and maybe the year before…there has been a real shift,” Rhuble said. “My first couple of weeks here, every weekend we were spending time with someone in the campus safety office… that does not happen much anymore. I do not want to minimize it, it still happens. ”

Rhuble also had access to the official results breakdown from the 2022 challenge. In addition to much of the information that went up on the posters from the Peer Assistants, there were many quotes from students who participated, all of whom had glowing feedback. “I felt less inclined to drink because my peers were not. Also, I had better sleep because I wasn’t woken up by drunk yelling students outside,” one student said.

So, does the data indicate that the 100 Hour Challenge helped increase healthy usage of alcohol and marijuana on campus? “The answer is yes,” Rhuble said. All of the data on the official results breakdown confirmed this, and was the same as the data featured on the posters.

On their website page, the GustieWELL describes the Peer Assistants as an, “elite group of student leaders…dedicated to promoting a culture of well being by providing quality wellness education and resources that support and enhance the lifestyles of our students.” This elite group of leaders looks forward to once again piloting Gustavus students through another successful 100 Hour Challenge this February.