Willamette health and safety experts, students provide guidance for safe Halloween season
- Avneet Dhaliwal, Staff Writer
- 9 minutes ago
- 3 min read
College students are injured seriously during festive events every year — in some cases, mortally. A visit to the emergency room from alcohol poisoning, cannabis intoxication or polysubstance use is no one’s ideal way to spend a holiday. With Halloween right around the corner, Willamette health and safety leaders and community members provided some reminders and strategies to stay safe this spooky season.
“If you’re going to choose to participate in those activities, have a plan,” said AJ Christensen, director of Campus Safety. “[Ask yourself], ‘Who’s your safe driver?’ Make sure if you’re going in areas unknown to you, go in groups [and] go with people you trust.”
Juniors and seniors often have established a set of rules that they share with friends or family before they go out to have fun. Despite being friends with someone for a long time, there still may be things such as health conditions or drinking habits that can come as a shock if not discussed beforehand. For many, clear communication and strict boundaries established with peers is the easiest way to have a good time.
“I give [my friends] all the information that they need to know,” said Grace Grahou (’26). “I should at least know two people [in the group] of people that I’m going with. [Also], some people can be nice, but when they drink, they can show you a side that you’ve never seen before.”
Advocates at the Bishop Wellness Center encourage students to stock up on essentials before they may actually need them. The self-service cart in the entry way of the Bishop Wellness Center, for example, has free condoms and dental dams. They also provide various medications, such as Tylenol, Ibuprofen or liquid IV for hangovers in the vending machine on the first floor of the UC building.
During a safety or health-related scare, Campus Safety and Willamette Emergency Medical Services (WEMS) should be among the first personnel contacted for an on-campus emergency. However, at time of reporting, WEMS has been out-of-service and were unable to share when they will return to service.
“If there is a medical emergency, generally, the first line that you should always be calling is Campus Safety, whether WEMS is on call or not,” said Safia Bethune (’27), a co-director for WEMS.
All Willamette health and safety members wish to direct students to Campus Safety as the first line to call in the event of a medical emergency because Campus Safety is able to get the appropriate personnel to students faster, without students having to bear that burden, rather than students immediately calling 911 themselves. The aftermath of a medical emergency usually involves different university personnel reaching out for assistance. One of the possible groups checking in would be the care team at Willamette.
“There’s a care team at Willamette. They’re the ones to get information [on student crises] and reach out to the student if needed to provide support,” said Lauren Carlson, director of health services and lead nurse practitioner at the Bishop Wellness Center. “There’s a high level of privacy [surrounding] health information. So [student crises] are not always on [Bishop Wellness Center’s] radar.”
Willamette University follows a strong medical amnesty policy that allows university personnel to help students regardless of the legality of the student’s behavior in hopes of fostering an environment where students are encouraged to reach out for assistance without fear of repercussions.
“We want people to be able to have fun, but we want them to do it safely too,” Christensen said.
Campus Safety can be reached at (503)-370-6911.
Bishop Wellness Center can be reached immediately from 8 a.m. - noon and 1-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday at (503)-370-6062.
For more information on alcohol, sex and drug safety and partner violence visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s web page.