The DU Health Promotion Department will host a student Alcohol Forum and dinner for undergraduate and graduate students on Jan. 20 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Driscoll Ballroom.

“No DU faculty, staff, or administrators will be allowed to attend in order to create a safe, confidential environment for students to have honest conversations,” said Gabriela Mohr, the Alcohol and Other Drug Coordinator for the Health Promotion Department.

Alan Kent, the Executive Director of the Health and Counseling Center, said he has many hopes for the upcoming Alcohol Forum.

“We are hoping that the Alcohol Forum attracts a wide, diverse, cross section of the DU student body—including those who drink alcohol and those who do not,” he said.

Mohr said the purpose of the forum is to “Discuss the student perspective of alcohol use on campus and the positive and negative impacts it has had on their college experience.”

To keep the forum moving along, the Health Promotion Department is bringing in facilitator David Arnold.

“[Arnold] is an outside facilitator and was asked to facilitate this with the intention of guiding conversations and gathering themes from this discussion in an anonymous fashion.” Mohr said. “We plan to use these themes from this discussion to create resources that best support the students.”

Patti Helton, the Associate Provost for Student Life, hopes that students will feel more comfortable and be more open without the presence of administrators.

“We support and appreciate student dialogue on addressing campus alcohol issues; We understand that students may not feel comfortable addressing these issues in front of administrators,” she said. “The hope is that students will discuss openly and honestly about alcohol use and ways to prevent serious and harmful outcomes of the misuse or overuse of alcohol.”

“The misuse of alcohol on college campuses is a serious health and safety concern,” said Helton. “We want to do all we can to prevent negative or unhealthy outcomes for DU students.”