“Eric Stratton, Rush chairman, damn glad to meet you.”
“That was Eric Stratton, Rush chairman, and he was damn glad to meet you.”
With those immortal words, the pledge class of Delta House was introduced to their new environment. To you, the incoming class of 2007, I say, damn glad to meet you. And when I do it, I’ll probably have a drink in my hand.
Which is under attack in these parts as of late. Although we are currently the No. 2 party school according to the Princeton Review (and back up there after having slipped for a couple of years), there are forces on this campus and in this community that would like to squash some of our fun. I completely believe in responsible partying (those being irresponsible simply have to be willing to pay the consequences), but there is a point at which “responsible” and “killjoy” become interchangeable.
The fact is, the University of Wisconsin is a Janus-faced institution. On one hand it encourages the sober sifting and winnowing of knowledge in order to produce a well-rounded citizen with the educational tools available to go out and change the world. On the other, it sells beer at the Terrace and has football games with arrest rates that rival soccer matches.
I have no problem with this. I love it. I believe it is part of the character of our school, our community and the people who inhabit it. I get misty-eyed when I see drunks congregating at the corner of Henry and State. I love watching Open Mike Night at the Terrace and seeing people either inebriated or shameless get up and perform. I find the whole gamut of people hanging out on this campus interesting.
What someone would have you believe is that an individual coming to this campus would find the drinking culture intimidating. So last night, I asked around whether upon arrival to our campus students found the drinking culture ostracizing or alienating to those who prefer their fun without a twist of lemon and a chaser. Here are some responses.
“There are people on this campus who don’t drink?”
“Yes, it was intimidating. And then I started to drink and it wasn’t.”
“Buy me a shot and I’ll tell you.”
“I’m a Mormon. I don’t know why we’re talking.”
Look at it this way. The University of Wisconsin offers you two educations. The first is the institutional, classroom education. The one you expect. The second is a social education. Most people have to make many new friends in college, learn how to mingle with strangers, hang out with colleagues. If you don’t drink while doing this, fine! Really, it’s not a big deal, but be prepared for the fact that just about everyone else will be.
I actually think the culture here doesn’t allow us to party enough. As a tangent, if alcohol is the accepted social lubricant, really, why isn’t marijuana or other recreational drugs? The preferred mode of social alteration is drunkenness, as dangerous and addictive a drug as just about any other. Why demonize the weed? Drug laws unfairly discriminate against our ability to party even more.
Drinking alcohol is a choice. Partying is a choice. If I had the option to choose again, I wouldn’t have partied as much as I did when I was a freshman. My GPA haunted me for years after being unable to rouse myself for Friday-morning quizzes and missed German tutorials. But I made the choice, I lived with the consequences, and everything pretty much worked out.
My conservative counterpart would have you believe that the school here is permissive to the point of encouraging this sort of debauchery. He would have you believe that our school and campus cultivates a culture of consciousness-altering evenings. I think it does, with the full knowledge that you, as an individual, have the choice to engage in this behavior or find someone else to hang out with.
College is about a range of experiences — a whole new world, to quote Ariel. You find your niche, you adapt, you grow. If you find yourself on the outside of things because you don’t drink, revel in that. In fact, that probably makes you more of a hipster around these parts than the lemmings all trying to find an upperclassman that looks like them so they can get into the KK.
The fact remains. Drinking culture on this campus is voluntary, participatory, grassroots partying. In fact, anything you do that isn’t schoolwork is technically partying, so all you safe and sober people out there are still contributing to the cause with your “soda water” and your “Scrabble” games. I kid. Do what the hell you want, either drink in hand or not.
Remember, the enemy of this sort of lifestyle is those who think they know better for you.
Rob Deters ([email protected]) is a second-year law student.
