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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Dean condescending, Mifflin a must for students

“Don’t go. Don’t go to that event.” These words will live in infamy, at least for the Mifflin Street Block
Party 2012 cohort, thanks to Dean of Students Lori Berquam. The now famous video, posted online,
removed and then reposted by some anonymous dark knight of Madison, features a concerned but
fumbling Berquam pleading with students not to go to Mifflin.

Everything about the video screams aloofness from the student body of the University of Wisconsin, which is ironic considering Berquam’s title. The content of the video is completely devoid of
any meaning for the vast majority of students; it is merely something at which to poke fun, or even more to fuel
on their already raging fires of debauchery. Mifflin is now a Madison tradition dating back more than 40
years. It is as Madisonian as the Fourth of July is American, and I am highly incredulous that any students
will be dissuaded from going because Berquam said not to.

The delivery of the video is equally atrocious. Berquam claims she did not rehearse the script before
making the video and for her sake I hope that is true, because she certainly looks like she did it live.
Putting aside her lack of preparedness, though, the whole presentation is still awful. How did the dean of students not realize how abysmally this video would fail to resonate with students before
posting it online? Moreover, the whole idea of instructing adults not to go to Mifflin seems excessively
patronizing, and the way Berquam repeats herself throughout the video is condescending.

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Berquam further claims the reason she was so ill-prepared for the video is that it was an
impromptu, from-the-heart message from a concerned dean to her students. It may be true that Berquam
is concerned about students, and if she says that she sincerely believes that going to Mifflin is a bad
thing for students, I believe her. Despite all of that, there is no way that there was no ulterior motive
whatsoever for making this video for either herself or for the university.

Given the events of last year’s Mifflin, I cannot blame Berquam or the university for wanting to put
distance between itself and Mifflin. Last year was one of the rowdier Mifflins in recent history; of
the thousands of people in attendance at the party, two were stabbed and 160 were arrested. That
is unacceptable, and we cannot have a repeat of that this year. However, this is not the appropriate
response from the university.

Mifflin is not going away any time soon. I am not advocating the university proudly display its seal
all over the event, but trying to abdicate responsibility in this manner is childish and ineffective. It makes
it seem as though all the university really wants is to be in a position to say “we told you not to go” if
Mifflin does indeed get out of control again this year. Instead of trying to shirk any responsibility, the university should be doing whatever it can to help make the event safer.

Just for icing on the cake, as if the video were not already ridiculous enough, Berquam makes a
completely illegitimate claim about the offensiveness of the “Cinco de Mifflin” shirts on display in store
windows on State Street. What? What in the world is offensive about the phrase “Cinco de Mifflin”? It is
merely recognition of the fact that Mifflin and Cinco de Mayo happen to coincide this year, and that is all. There is no offensive content there whatsoever.

I can understand why the University is being very careful to appear culturally sensitive, given all of the difficulties it had throughout this academic year with groups like MCSC. However, this is
just ridiculous. Show me someone who claims to be offended by the phrase “Cinco de Mifflin,” and I will
show you someone who is either way oversensitive or merely pretending to be offended. Curiously, St.
Patrick’s Day is allegedly a celebration of Irish heritage, but no one seems to care when it gets turned
into a drinking festival. Feigning indignation at “Cinco de Mifflin” and falsely claiming it is offensive
does nothing but supply fodder for the neo-conservatives’ claims that universities are bastions of
excessive political correctness.

The way I see it, if we go by last year’s numbers, which are from one of the craziest Mifflins in
recent years, you have roughly a .02 percent chance of being stabbed and a 1.6 percent chance of being arrested.
Those are numbers I can live with. If you take Berquam’s advice and do not go, you have a 100 percent chance
of missing out on an awesome tradition unique to Madison, one of the best times you will have in your
few short years here and making lasting memories with your friends. That’s a
chance I’m willing to take. So my advice to you is this: Do go. Do go to Mifflin.

Ryan Plesh ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in philosophy and physics.

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