WSU’s first Anti-Drunk Driving Awareness Week seeks to inform students about the risks of drunken driving and provide them with the opportunity to remember victims of alcohol-related collisions.

Edison Kent, the ASWSU director of philanthropy and community outreach, said this weeklong collection of events is a collaborative effort. Sponsors include ASWSU’s GIVE program, the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, and Alpha Omicron Pi, along with support from local businesses and law enforcement.

“This is a unifying event for Pullman and WSU in general,” Kent said.

Kent said some of the major events on campus this week will be T-shirt sales from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday on the Glenn Terrell Mall, poster displays all week outside the CUB, possible demonstrations of sobriety tests on Thursday evening, and a mystery event Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. on the mall.

ASWSU President Derick En’Wezoh said this week’s events are necessary, because students should take control of their own safety.

Among the lessons and solutions being presented, En’Wezoh said he highly encourages students to take the keys of friends who have been drinking.

Part of the motivation for the Anti-Drunk Driving Awareness Week, Kent said, is that WSU lost several students over the summer in alcohol-related car accidents.

One victim of drunken driving this summer, Tanya Guseva, is being remembered by the sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi through their involvement in this week’s events.

“Drunk driving affects every student on our campus,” said Ali Scott, president of the Panhellenic Council.

T-shirt and bracelet sales on the Glenn Terrell Mall this week will help fund a plaque in memory of Guseva at the scene of her accident. The plaque is meant to remind passing drivers not to drink and drive and to take the keys from their friends, Scott said.

“I think this event will unite students in pursuing different solutions to the alcohol-related problems we have on campus,” En’Wezoh said.

Kent said he hopes the Anti-Drunk Driving Awareness Week will lead to more permanent memorials to remember victims of drunken driving, such as a memorial garden.

“We don’t want people to forget about why we’re doing this a month or two months down the road,” he said.