Students at more than 80 colleges and universities around the country, including nine in Colorado, will hold on-campus rallies today urging their universities to allow marijuana use as a safer recreational alternative to alcohol. The nationwide rally is being coordinated by Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a nonprofit working to education the public about the relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol. SAFER launched a campus initiative in 2005 in response to student alcohol overdose deaths on the two largest college campuses in Colorado. April 1 marks the first day of National Alcohol Awareness Month and April Fools Day, and rallying students intend to hold signs and banners reading “This is NOT a joke É Let us make the SAFER choice!” A rally will take place locally at 1 p.m. on the Main Square outside the Plaza Building at the Auraria Higher Education Center campus, which serves the Community College of Denver, the University of Colorado’s Denver students and Metropolitan State College of Denver. There will also be rallies at the University of Denver and University of Colorado’s Boulder and Colorado Springs campuses. More information on the initiative can be found at www.safercampuses.org.