In an effort to combat student binge drinking, Sacramento State has received a $60,000 grant as its share of a large donation from the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Prevention.

Besides Sac State, the organization has donated $300,000 to three other community organizations, including Project Help, People Reaching Out, and Friday Night Live. Sac’s State’s portion of the grant, which was given to the Student Activities Center, will last for three years.

Student Activities starts developing ideas for spending the grant this year, and plans to implement those ideas in the second and third years.

“Our goal it to let students know that binge drinking is not a normal part of a student’s life,” Student Activities employee Heather Bunn Carlton said.

Carlton said that some students, especially those new to college, believe that excessive drinking is a part of the collegiate experience.

“People get all these ideas that college is one big party, partially from the media,” Carlton said.

One of Student Activities’ goals of this campaign is to teach students to drink responsibly.

“We don’t want people to stop drinking, unless they prefer not to. We just want students to know their limits,” Carlton said. “Alcohol isn’t worth going to the hospital and maybe losing your life over.”Students have different experiences with the drinking culture on campus.

“From what I’ve experienced, I don’t see any binge drinking going on at all,” student Matt Andreiux. “It’s a party atmosphere and it’s more important to find a designated driver than binge drink. I think a program about designated driving is more important than binge drinking.”

“I’m not around binge drinking and I don’t binge drink,” student Jeramiah Fender said. “I know that there is a problem with heavy drinking at a lot of campuses so I think that this is a great idea. $60,000 is a great way to kick off what could be a really good program.”