A misprint on the Ivies bottles sold by the Class of 2011 council is causing controversy and confusion on campus.
The bottle design, which was a collaboration between the class council and Peer Health, includes information regarding how much alcohol the bottle can hold. Director of Peer Health Emily Skinner sent an e-mail to various students around campus with a correction Wednesday.
The e-mail warned that "the line that is denoting four drinks (four shots) on the bottles actually measures at nine ounces of alcohol which is equivalent to six (one and a half ounces) standard drinks of 80 proof alcohol."
Class of 2011 President Grant Easterbrook acknowledged the misprint and cited the printing company, not the class council, as the one at fault for the error.
"The reason for the mistake is that the company we ordered from did not place the lines of the four marker the correct distance from the base, despite how much we emphasized the importance of it being the exact distance," said Easterbrook. "Overall we are not very happy with them."
Due to the misprint, the class council decided to abstain from informing students what the number four was supposed to mark, a fact that only became know once Peer Health sent out it's cautionary e-mail.
"Since it was not correct we decided not to explicitly tell students what the four marker meant when giving these out, like we had originally planned," said Easterbrook. "Peer Health was already planning on doing a display on responsible alcohol consumption during Ivies during dinner on Tuesday in Thorne. We had promised to give them bottles to use and had informed them before the event that the label was incorrect."
Since the e-mail, Easterbrook has received many angry e-mails accusing the 2011 Class Council of purposely marking the bottles incorrectly.
"I cannot begin to tell you how many people seriously asked me if this was some kind of plan by the 2011 Class Council to secretly get the student body more intoxicated at Ivies after that e-mail was sent out," said Easterbrook. "Ridiculous as it sounds, the tone of the e-mail without any explanation seemed to implicate us in many peoples' minds. I wish they could have been a little more considerate given that the 2011 Class Council has no vested interest in including any of this safety information on the back and did it out of good will."
Despite the unfortunate slip-up, Easterbrook is confident that it was the right decision to continue to sell the Ivies bottles to students.
"The Ivies bottles have been a huge success with a positive impact," said Easterbrook. "It is a good thing that now many students will be walking around with a cup that has the Security number and shuttle number in their hand."
Easterbrook continued, "It is a good thing that now whenever students take a drink out of their bottle they will be reminded by a quote from Randy Nicholas to be safe and responsible, and, in many cases, also with a personal message and signature from Randy himself."