Albert Camus once wrote, "True debauchery is liberating because it creates no obligations. In it you possess only yourself…"

The implementation of the new, curiously titled "show and blow" policy by the Offices of Dean of Students should infuriate all students. Aside from grossly infringing on individual freedom, it more importantly assaults a cherished UW tradition — getting shitfaced before Badger football games.

The new policy mandates that students previously ejected for underage drinking or other disorderly conduct be subjected to taking a Breathalyzer test before entering the stadium. Underage students must have 0.0 percent alcohol content and legal drinkers must not exceed 0.08 — the legal limit for driving. The effect will be a gradually sobering student section.

I would have thought the surveillance and restrictions already in place were enough for the university administration. Apparently, being stared at by security guards the whole game, the athletic 'department's ticket revocation policy and the constant threat of ejection for simply having a good time are not satisfactory measures for keeping the crowd properly docile.

"Show and blow" is just the most recent of similarly repressive policies. Camp Randall once featured students smoking weed, body surfing and an exceedingly rowdy atmosphere. Today, even our ability to enjoy a mellow intoxication is threatened.

This is precisely the objective. UW Assistant Dean of Students Kipp Cox, for example, wants to see a more fundamental change in student behavior. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, he said, "As you walk in that student gate, to the right is where the students will be blowing [into the Breathalyzer] and other students may see that. Hopefully, they’re going to think ‘I don’t want to be in that line.’ We’re hoping over time to change some of the culture around this."

He's already halfway there. Many Madison alumni speak of a certain change in the atmosphere: It's now less easygoing. With less and less alcohol in students' bloodstreams, we can expect less of the general boisterousness that makes the games so enjoyable in the first place.

The new policy also threatens the tradition of the Saturday morning house party. With more and more students blacklisted, fewer and fewer students will be able to drink before the game — and who ever heard of a party without beer?

I think I speak for, well, pretty much the entire student body when I say students have the right to get wasted before the game. For many, such as myself, the hangover courtesy of Friday night impedes such an indulgence, but I couldn't be happier that the more robust of my peers are able to brave the headaches and nausea and show up to the game plastered. It is these fine individuals who are truly responsible for making the UW student section the best in the country.

Perhaps even more frustrating is that the new policy is only a further curtailment of the general debauchery surrounding the UW weekend. The drunken haze that characterizes the weekend of many — dare I say, most — students serves as a crucial outlet for the stress that characterizes the workweek. Why shouldn't students be entitled to forget their overburdened lives for a day or two?

Football games aren't the only target. Be it the $5 entrance fee that ruined Halloween last year or the over-policing of the Mifflin Street Block Party, in many respects, the right to party is becoming a tenuous one here at UW. Partying and its related activities are essential forms of student self-expression. The paradox is that the accompanying intoxication blocks consciousness of the self for a few hours — or a few days — and enables us to live carefree.– Therein lies the enjoyment. Therein lies the instinctual repulsion that we all feel at any attempt to infringe on our right to engage in a little bit of harmless partying.

As "show and blow" indicates, the current trend is not on the side of public debauchery. More and more, our instinctual need to let loose is confined to the indoors. The results have not been good: Our school's reputation has suffered almost as much as our good time. It's time to take a stand. Noncooperation, anyone?

Kyle Szarzynski ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in history and Spanish.