STAFF WRITER

Awareness can enhance student safety. The issue is black and white.

That is the point Peer Educators is trying to make in its newest poster campaign.

The posters, displayed across campus, offer direct admonitions to promote smart behavior outside of Fordham’s gates.

“We decided to take a very direct approach and simplify it to being just black and white,” Peer Educators President David Schwartz, GSB ’14, said. “You have to be familiar with your surroundings and not do anything that necessarily draws attention to yourself when in the Belmont community, especially in the evenings.”

A string of security alerts sparked the campaign.

“I would say that the big catalyst for it was the weekend when we received three security alerts in 48 hours, about the ‘apple picking,’—the iPhone thefts,” Schwartz said. “We sat down and looked at the issue wholistically, and realized it’s not simply people walking with their phones out, it’s also walking alone and being targeted. So we tried to flush out both of those aspects. Without going for the shock value factor, we had to make it clear that your iPhone isn’t just a phone to you or to someone else; it’s also a means of cash.”

The result was two straightforward posters. “The average resale value of a smartphone is between $100 and $150. Would you walk around with that kind of money in your hand? Keep your phone away,” reads the first. The second simply states, “Friends don’t let friends walk alone.”

However, Peer Educators did not stop there. Setting its sights on tougher topics, the club decided to address the rising issue of “Molly,” a slang term for the drug MDMA.

“It’s a very abstract phenomenon, Molly, and I don’t think that everyone is truly familiar with the severity of it,” Schwartz said. “It never truly presented itself as such a pressing issue until really that same weekend, following EZoo. We as Peer Educators had never really done anything with it; it was uncharted territory for us as well.”

Because of the overwhelming sense of unfamiliarity surrounding the topic, Peer Educators opted for what Schwartz deems a more “visually striking” approach.

The Molly posters depict an iMessage conversation — Emojis and all — in which a student is offered, denies and learns about the drug.

“There’s so many posters that go around campus, you really have to differentiate yourself to drive the point home,” Schwartz says.

With four members of the executive board dedicated solely to a marketing committee, Peer Eds has made differentiating itself visually a top priority.

Schwartz indicates that the job of promoting student safety is just beginning, and requires a team effort.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that one organization cannot reach the entire student body in the way that several can,” Schwartz said, noting that this Thursday may mark a “meeting of the minds” for several club leaders.

This more aggressive approach was brought about by comments Christopher Rodgers, dean of students at Rose Hill, made to the Student Life Council last month.

“We’re going to lose someone at some point,” Dean Rodgers told the SLC, regarding the increased number of FUEMS transports so far this year.

Schwartz emphasizes that, regardless of working alongside faculty like the deans, Peer Educators, is run by students, for students.

“For about a year and a half or so, there’s been a bit of a stigma that surrounds Peer Educators that we’re merely a vehicle for the administration to put across their beliefs and initiatives on alcohol, and that’s not the case at all,” he says. “We pride ourselves on being student-run.”

The efforts of this student-run club have not gone unnoticed on campus.

Rose Hill’s United Student Government recently named Peer Educators “Club of the Month.”

Still, Schwartz takes it all in stride, nodding to Fordham’s Jesuit mantra of men and women for others. “It’s about making a difference, and the rewards that you gain — not from notoriety and not from accolades from students or administrators, but intrinsically,” Schwartz said. “The feeling that you get when you work with others working to make a difference, it’s invaluable.”