Students didn't get the usual "don't drink" lecture yesterday at the HUB-Robeson Center.

"I wanted something different than our standard lectures," Leslie Laing, coordinator for special populations within Student Affairs, said. "You can tell people not to drink, but they make their own independent choices."

Student Affairs, Residence Life and University Health Services teamed up to deliver "It Happened One Night," which took place in Alumni Hall.

Instead of a simple lecture, "One Night" offered an interactive alcohol-awareness presentation focusing on decision-making, decision consequences and alcohol abuse education.

The event included "Drink, Drank, Drunk," a performance by the University Park Ensemble, and a variety of hands-on and literature-rich information stations.

Each of the stations were dedicated to an aspect or consequence of irresponsible drinking, ranging from a simulated bar scene to a mock field-sobriety situation in which students "walked the line" before a uniformed police officer and drove a remote-controlled car while wearing beer goggles.

Students walked through the Club Zone station where they were confronted with hypothetical drinking situations, including rapid shot drinking and beer pong.

This was an effort to expose students to examples of "high-risk drinking" and familiarize them with the kinds of decisions that could get them in trouble with Penn State Judicial Affairs or cause them to spend a night in the emergency room, Shandol Hoover, coordinator of new student programs, said.

Medical issues and those dealing with Penn State Judicial Affairs were represented by separate information stations at "One Night," each station familiarized students with more severe consequences of irresponsible drinking such as physical injury or disciplinary action from the university.

Other experiences included the "Matinee," which distributed educational literature and featured newspaper headlines recalling alcohol-related tragedies, and the "Contemplation Station," which outlined healthy decision-making strategies in tough situations.

By the end of the first two sessions of "One Night," roughly 75 students had participated.

"I think it was a success," Laing said, adding that more than 300 students pledged to stay sober for various amounts of time and four students pledged to abstain from alcohol completely as of the second of four sessions held yesterday.

"Hopefully we can run another program next year," Laing said. "It could happen another night."