By:  Bruce Hodges, (Whetstone Contributor )

Wesley College is educating its freshmen on alcohol before it’s too late.

Caress Roach, adviser of S.A.F.E (Student Advocate for Educating Wesley), introduced first-year students to AlcholEdu, to help raise awareness.

“Coming into college there is this typical expectation that college is all about drinking, AlcoholEdu would be a great program to institute here with first-year students to become more aware of alcohol,” Roach said.

All first year students go online and take a test until they pass it with a 75 or better.

“I thought it was long and boring, but it did teach me stuff I didn’t know that’s important to know, but it was irrelevant to me because I’m not a drinker,” said freshman Kayla Hodges.

According to Wesley’s annual security report, in 2011, there were 43 liquor law violations on campus referred for disciplinary action, and 3 liquor law arrests.

The new online quiz educates students the effects alcohol can have on your body, legal alcohol limits, laws and influences.

“Typically, first-year students are the ones who violate the alcohol policy the most, one, because they’re underage, and two, because they probably don’t know the policy,” Roach said.

Wesley College was awarded a grant from the state to focus on alcohol prevention awareness and education.

“In terms of prevention, it’s not like, ‘Let’s get rid of all alcohol,” Roach said. “It’s more of us again saying how can we equip the students to know about alcohol, how it affects their bodies, the consequences associated with such use, and prepare them to make better decisions if they do decide to drink, so if they do it they do it responsibly.”

Some students said they got something out of taking the new quiz.

“It’s a good program, it gives you heads up on how much you drink, and I did learn a couple new pointers I didn’t know from before,” said freshmen Gregory Moore said.