Northwestern’s newest student group wants everyone to know drunk driving isn’t just a high school issue.

Nightcrawlers, a college version of Students Against Driving Drunk, was founded by two students affected by drunk driving who say they want to draw attention to an issue that many disregard.

“It’s not enough to say, ‘I won’t drink and drive,'” said group co-founder Allison Sands. “I felt that I had to take some sort of action to educate other people.”

A major influence in the group’s founding was the apparent denial of drunk driving as a problem on NU’s campus, said Sands, a Weinberg junior.

Sands cited a recent study by the Undergraduate Leadership Program that said 65 percent of NU students have driven in a car with an intoxicated driver, but 69 percent say drunk driving is not a big deal.

“Everyone said, ‘No one drives on this campus,'” Sands said. “So many people don’t think about it here. It’s almost like it’s not a faux pas, like it’s normal.”

A major initiative will be forming partnerships with local bars where designated drivers wearing a pin from Nightcrawlers will receive free soft drinks.

Nightcrawlers’ name is based on its logo’s mascot, a small worm that appears intoxicated. Sands said group members wanted an identifiable logo to tell students “go out at night and then crawl home.”

A budding organization of just four members, Nightcrawlers recently received temporary student group recognition from Associated Student Government.

The group’s focus is not against drinking but against drunk driving.

Unlike anti-drinking clubs in high school, Nightcrawlers will be a realistic resource whose members understand that college students drink, Sands said.

As president of SADD in high school, she said she noticed the students in the high school’s organization were not the type of people who would go to bars and drive drunk.

Nightcrawlers co-founder Carl Allen equated the group’s philosophy with a health service giving out free condoms.

“They’re not saying, ‘Go have sex,’ only that they recognize that there’s a risk,” he said.

Allen added that with drinking, as with sex, “if you’re going to do it, do it safely and be smart about it.”

Sands lost three grandparents in drunk driving accidents before she was born. When she was 14, she suffered physical injury in an accident involving a drunk driver.

Allen, who was also hit by a drunk driver while driving with his family, said he was affected deeply by his experience.

But he said he wanted the group to be diverse and approachable, not a group of anti-drinking activists.

“We want it to be something that’s cool and has people from lots of different social groups,” said Allen, a McCormick senior.

He added that the group has no strict membership policy, only a pledge promising members will not drink and drive.

Nightcrawlers will mix educational and social approaches to achieving their goal, Sands said.

The group plans to host exhibits and speakers and have fund-raising initiatives. Also, members already had matchbooks made that say “Walk me home tonight” and “Don’t drink and drive: Nightcrawlers.” They plan to give away the matchbooks to students across campus.

But Allen said events will be secondary to Nightcrawlers’ goal of being a constant presence on campus.

“If we don’t reach people who are drinking and driving, we’ll reach their friends,” Allen said.