You’ve seen them. Or at least 96 percent of you have, according to the UMass Center for Alcohol and other Drug Abuse Prevention (CADAP). I’m writing about flyers declaring “2/3 of UMass students have four or fewer drinks when they party.”

They’re embarrassing. Posters on busses shame-shaming UMass kids about their drinking habits? While aiming for positive reinforcement, they’re back-handed proclamations with a tone that rings of rehab. One can see how this ad campaign reinforces University stereotypes for the folks who live in town. Being told – in public – about our drinking habits doesn’t help our reputation among our classmates from the other four colleges, either.

But let’s revisit the statistic “2/3 of UMass students have four or fewer drinks when they party.” This means that 1/3 of UMass students have 5 or more drinks when they party. Think about that in practical terms. Five or more vodka and Redbulls could make you kind of reckless. Five or more glasses of wine might depress you into a corner.

So at a UMass house party with 100 people, 33 of them are going to end the night wasted, if we’re to believe the statistics. So much for positive social norms.

Ms. April McNally of the Office of the Center for Alcohol and other Drug Abuse Prevention noted in a Collegian letter that, “The goal of these social norms messages, and of all CADAP initiatives, is to help students make informed decisions so they can stay healthy and achieve their academic and personal goals.”

I’m writing to state that CADAP’s “Social Norms Campaign” is not educational. It’s propaganda.

I’m teaching a course on propaganda this semester, and I can say with certainty that this ad campaign fits the major requirements for being labeled the P-word. Most importantly, it’s designed to influence behavior – not to educate us about health, as Health Services would like us to believe. It utilizes the bandwagon tactic, essentially peer pressure, to discourage drinking.

A couple clicks on the CADAP website reveal language that sounds an awful lot like a propaganda campaign. “Social norms messages generate skepticism, because they often contradict people’s thoughts or beliefs. As time goes on, people process the information and many ultimately change their minds.” So, the ads not only serve to discourage alcohol consumption by students, but also to make community residents believe that we’re not drinking much.

Because the statements aren’t sugar-coated, they seem factual, right? While the survey’s statistics may be sound, the actual wording is misleading. In academia we’d call this advertisement an “epistemically defective message,” which in plain talk means “it ain’t quite right.” Sure, nine out of 10 students know how to have fun without alcohol, as another CADAP ad declares. But knowledge and action are two different things. Simply compare both statistics, and you’ll realize that many of those 90 percent of students put at least a couple shots of alcohol into their “fun.”

(I’d also like to note that, statistically speaking, 10 percent of UMass students must have alcohol in order to have fun. That’s 2,500 members of the campus community.)

As if all this isn’t regretful enough, I’ll break some more bad news: Your bursar bill is funding these ads. CADAP is run out of University Health Services. So we’re paying this office to propagandize to us. And CADAP isn’t the only offender.

The propaganda machine is at work all around us: where we eat, sleep, and study. Posters right outside our dorm room, telling us that “sober sex is intoxicating.” Massive banners with the vapid proclamation, “Students First!” What purpose does this undoubtedly expensive banner serve, but to make us feel the administration cares more about us than about line items in budgets?

Message to the administration: Don’t spend our money on cheap-shot behavior modification campaigns.

Furthermore, we’re adults. We can make up our own minds about whether to drink before we shag.

In my class on propaganda, students are arming themselves with the critical thinking skills necessary to recognize propaganda. I recently encouraged them not only to spot it, but to take action in resisting it, to counter that propaganda message. So I’ll encourage you, the reader, to do the same in response to the administration’s anti-alcohol propaganda: This weekend, go out and have 5 or more drinks when you party.

Steven Hoeschele is a UMass student and instructor of a STPEC course on propaganda.