To flock or not to flock . . .

Walking to class today, you might have noticed sheep – real and fake – along the greens.

This is Ohio University Residence Life staff's way of getting students to take a look at their social behavior. It might seem unfathomable to connect sheep with the ever-present nightlife of Athens, but the staff justifies it as such:

Sheep tend to act in a "groupthink" manner, following each other without putting much thought into what they are doing. OU students supposedly engage in the same behavior when it comes to drinking and making other decisions. Friday night rolls around and, because everyone else is doing it, students decide to follow the "flock," by following each other from party to party, drinking the night away.

To end this group mentality and vulnerability to peer pressure, the staff is encouraging students to "Think Outside the Flock" in a university-wide campaign, kicking off today. But doubt surfaces about any campaign's potential success when its goal is to change an ingrained campus culture.

Unlike last year's poorly conceptualized Bring Your Own Judgement campaign –created by Hudson Health Center–that simply touted statistics on bulletin boards, Think Outside the Flock aims to grab students' attention with multimedia outlets and yes, even sheep.

Though anti-drinking campaigns often become jokes to some students as they drink their way through the weekend, this campaign intends to encourage students to think for themselves in all aspects of their lives. And while the concept might seem a bit hokey with sheep, it definitely is something students will notice and discuss.

The Web site (http://www.outsidetheflock.com) gives a break down of statistics that are staggering by any means, with more than 90 percent of students believing alcohol is the key component to OU's social life. The site also offers tales of students who have been pressured into drinking simply because their friends were partaking in the festivities.

Beyond the Web site, television commercials will encourage students to act on their own free will and remove themselves from the flock. Other outlets such as computer mouse pads and fliers will adorn the campus as a continual reminder to think outside the flock.

Most college students pride themselves on being independent, something the promotion points out as untrue. The campaign is challenging students to exercise their so-called independence by not drinking, doing drugs or whatever else might land them in trouble.

So will this campaign succeed where so many others have failed? The effectiveness seems unlikely, although the concept is more developed than previous ones. Preaching to students about how they should act only goes so far. Most students, no matter how independent they might think themselves to be, likely will listen to a peer who wants to drink rather than listen to a bleating sheep.

In order for any campaign to truly test the campus culture, much more than talking and advertising must be done. Options that don't involve drinking must be given to students. Midnight movies, Baker Nights and other non-alcoholic related events have to be planned if the university wants to lure students away from off-campus parties and Uptown bars.

The Think Outside the Flock campaign has a good start on trying to convince students by getting the word out. But words only can persuade students to do so much. More incentives have to be given to try to curb the drinking culture at OU.