Typically, this time of the year (Welcome Week, Orientation, etc…), most of the students coming to my program are mandated to attend. Clearly, mandating draws great audiences and works very well.
Not all schools are able to mandate. SUNY – Albany did not mandate and still drew an incredible audience last night. On only their 2nd night of school (with no mandated attendance at all), near 1,000 students came out to the program. These students showed up with extremely high levels of energy and participation!!
A great deal of credit goes to Julie Heslin-Pokat and all of her colleagues (especially 
Carol and Amy). You can see Julie starting off the show in this picture. They worked hard to utilize the "Do You Ask?" posters. Plus, they chose the one promotional choice that almost guarantees excitement and high attendance — FREE SHIRTS for the first students in attendance. Since this was 2 separate presentations, they split the number of shirts in half and gave them away at each program. Students were at the Theatre over 1 hour before the program was suppose to start!!
By the way, in a month SUNY-Albany’s counseling center is sponsoring a campus 5K run in conjunction with the NYSCASA (New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault). This is a fantastic way for a campus to help their entire state and show how much they care about addressing sexual assault awareness!!