IOWA CITY, Iowa — It's an unfortunate experience for many college students: they're out in the community and their drink is tampered with.
For some, it can even lead to assault.
But a University of Iowa student is working to stop that violence and make her campus safer.
Madison Ross, a junior studying political science, said she noticed an alarming trend her freshman year.
"Three or four girls on my floor experienced some sort of drink tampering within those first few orientation weeks," Ross said.
Shortly after, she saw an ad on Instagram for a product called Nightcap, a scrunchie that converts to a drink cover to help deter drink tampering.
"I was like, wait a minute, this might be a safety device that doesn't put too much of a burden on people who are susceptible to drink spiking themselves," Ross said.
As the Health and Safety Committee Chair for the school's Undergraduate Student Government, Ross formed a plan by reaching out to Nightcap to help launch a pilot distribution of the product at the University of Iowa.
Once they acquired funding through university partnerships, they set up events to spread the word this semester.
"Within the first three hours of our tabling event, we only had 82 of the 450 left,” Ross said. “That's when it kind of, you know, kind of hit me in the face. ‘Oh my gosh,’ this is a product that's wanted, and people are going to go out of their way to get one."
While Ross doesn’t want to endorse underage drinking and widespread alcohol use, she wants to ensure the safety of others.
"I think that we can try and institute those levels of safety while going out as much as we can," Ross said.
Now, she’s seeing her impact across campus.
Ross said she's seen several students out using the Nightcap, with one girl even telling her the scrunchie drink cover has changed her life and made her feel safer in general.
"It kind of just reminded me . . . [this] is what we're trying to do here,” Ross said. “It doesn't have to be some big discussion about substances or activities. It's really just about protecting students."
Since their initial launch on the University of Iowa campus, every single Nightcap has been donated.
Now, Ross wants to expand in years to come, by giving out more Nightcaps and also offering more inclusive safety products, like keychains that turn into drink covers, so anyone who doesn’t want or need a scrunchie can also have access to a safety device.