The President’s Council on Mental Health and Well-being met on Feb. 18 to discuss Dean of Students Dr. Wallace Southerland’s safety messaging and to review Winter Carnival.

The council went over Dr. Southerland’s previous safety messaging and discussed the safety messaging they hope to see moving forward. Regarding substance use and sexual activity, council members expressed their desires to avoid abstinence messaging. “It’s almost dangerous to say don’t drink,” said council member Sarah Dowd. 

Regarding sexual activity, Academic and Community Conduct representative Laura Putwen echoed Dowd’s sentiments. “Preaching abstinence: it’s dangerous,” Putwen noted.

Council Chair Whitney Boroski gave a brief report on Winter Carnival. “We heard from Public Safety that this was one of our safest Winter Carnivals in a long time,” Boroski said. Additionally, Boroski reported on the success of the Winter Carnival events the council was involved in: during the All-Nighter, the council hosted a Cocoa and Condoms event. They ran out of supplies at 11:30, starting the night with 200 condoms. The annual Glow Shoe event saw success as well, with 324 individuals participating. “It went really, really well,” Boroski reported.

The council’s mocktail event, held in collaboration with the MUB Board also well attended. “Mocktails went really, really great.” Boroski attributed much of the success to the ability of the drinks to be pre-prepared in advance “simple I think was key,” she said. The event, which was hosted in collaboration with the MUB Board, saw around 500 non-alcoholic drinks distributed.“We’re hoping to do it again next year,” Boroski said.