An Important Alcohol Conversation: Senior Fifth

In this Issue: As we approach the last home football game of the year, it’s time to talk about Senior Fifth.

I invited Peter Rives, Associate Director of Wellbeing, for a Q&A to help explain this phenomenon, and where we invite parents and families to help us.

What is Senior Fifth?

Senior Fifth is a dangerous activity that some seniors choose to do at the last home football game. Students attempt to drink a fifth of liquor – an entire 750 ml bottle! – between midnight and kickoff of the football game.

When is this year’s final home football game?

The last home football game this year is 11/11 vs. NC State. Kickoff time is 2 p.m. 

What does Wake Forest do to discourage Senior Fifth?

Senior Fifth had become a ritual that was perpetuated from year to year within the student culture. It is of course something we have been actively working to change over a number of years.

We have a robust, multifaceted, collaborative prevention and harm-reduction campaign in place to provide students with language to use to resist peer pressure, increase knowledge about dangers and safety, bolster our robust safety net, and challenge assumptions that Senior Fifth is safe or universally accepted as part of our culture. The image below maps the numerous efforts that make up this campaign onto a public health framework called the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM). As you can see, we are working very hard to impact attitudes and behaviors at every level of our campus community. (click to enlarge)

Have we moved the needle in changing student behavior?

Yes, our Senior Fifth prevention campaigns have made an impact. Though some students continue to participate, there is growing anecdotal evidence that the cultural importance of Senior Fifth is waning and that more students see it as a bad idea and dangerous activity rather than an inevitable part of the college experience. You can see from this graph (click to enlarge) that we have had a substantial reduction in harm since 2015.

What happened in 2018 that caused a spike?

Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is influenced by 4 key variables: sex, weight, amount of alcohol, and time. When there is a much shorter time between midnight and kickoff, this tends to result in higher BACs and therefore higher occurrences of students requiring medical intervention for intoxication.

In 2018, kickoff was 12 noon – which was 7.5 hours earlier than the prior year. When you compress the time in which students can consume a fifth of alcohol, that increases the likelihood of much higher BACs and risk to students’ health. This year, kickoff is at 2 p.m. – earlier than most years. This means that we may see some additional risk associated with Senior Fifth, and we will be messaging to students accordingly.

Is there a call to action for parents and families? 

Family members and loved ones still have an enormous amount of influence on student behavior. Even if students don’t appear to be listening to you, your words do matter. For parents/family members of seniors, the call to action is this: talk to your senior! Whether that is overtly about your desire that they do not participate in Senior Fifth, or whether you talk about not engaging in high risk drinking behavior in general, it is important for you to stress your expectations for their behavior and that your interest is in their safety and wellbeing.

For families of all other class years, your call to action is to begin laying the groundwork now about high risk behaviors and Senior Fifth – and keep building on that over time. 

Having parents and families as partners in this prevention work is critical. Thank you for all you can do to help encourage safe and healthy expectations for your student.