2006: Bring Back our Reputation, UMass - 5/3/2006
Bring back our reputation, UMass
By: Matthew Lofaro, a UMass student.
Posted: 5/3/06
While academics are the reason we are ultimately here, I am a firm believer that things you do outside of classes and homework are the true preparation for the real world. You practice people skills every time you go out to a party, learning more about human behavior than you did in your intro psychology class. You become more mature and responsible through four years worth of mistakes, screw-ups and bad decisions; learning valuable life lessons every time you wake up handcuffed to a railing in the UMPD, blacked-out and hung over.
During my time here, I've seen and done things that most people never experience, and in my opinion, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is one of the most exciting and unpredictable places in the country.
Last August, when UMass was ranked the number nine party school in the nation, I felt an overwhelming sense of anticipation for the upcoming school year. Most every student here has pride for our school, and will be quick to speak up anytime an ignorant schmuck from UConn or UNH argues that they go to the best party school in the Northeast.
This year, however, I've noticed an indifference to preserving our school's good name. Every time I run into a friend on campus and ask him/her their plans for the weekend, I get the same, repetitive, boring response nearly every time: Goin' uptown, hittin' the bahs (bars, for those of us not from Massachusetts).
Finding a good party on a Friday night has become like the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; we know they don't exist, but we look for them anyway.
The blame is on everyone's shoulders. The upperclassmen neglect their responsibilities to throw parties in their off-campus residences and have made the bar scene the cool thing to do on the weekend. Suddenly, going to house parties has somehow become cliché, and this is influencing more underclassmen determined to prove their maturity to grab a fake ID and jump in line for the overcrowded bars uptown.
The Pub gets packed shoulder to shoulder; everyone is hot, sweaty and smelly. You wait in line for 20 minutes just to buy a beer for five bucks - the same beer that costs 60 cents at the liquor store. You spend your night fighting past the drunk girl screeching in your ear, whose sole purpose in life seems to be to knock down your drink as she flails around like she's having a seizure.
Because of many of you who feel compelled to show us how cool you are by mobbing the bars, the once proud tradition of wild house parties is becoming a thing of the past. Upperclassmen who have been shaped by parties thrown in Puffton and townhouses are now leaving their complexes deserted on Friday night so they can drive drunk to and from Amherst center, coming back with nothing but a bar napkin and a book of matches in their pockets.
Wake up, UMass. I understand that the cops both on and around campus have cracked down recently, but the students at this school have never bent over for authority before. This is the home of the wildest baseball riots this side of Boston, the late, great
Hobart Hoedown and completely out-of-control parties like the infamous crew house bash of fall '03. Unfortunately, there has been an absence of events this year, and any that have taken place have been mediocre at best.
Spring Weekend is this weekend, and there is a serious cause for concern. There are always skeptics who question the credibility of the Spring Concert artist, this year being the Roots.
Concert aside; there is a lack of enthusiasm in general. Many students are going away this weekend, or going home to party with their friends who are out of their schools early. While UConn's Spring Weekend festivities are all over the news, ours is bound to go by silently unless we all take personal responsibility to make this the best weekend of the year.
I can tell you firsthand that the Roots are possibly the best live band out there. The school-sponsored activities will be fun as usual, and everyone should take advantage of them. As far as our party life is concerned, it is up to each and every one of you to take the initiative to get out and have a good time.
Throw a party, get outside and don't hibernate in the bars. Be safe, and be responsible; if you don't give the cops a reason to break up a party, then they wont. Things won't just fall into your lap; you have to get out there, carpe diem and have the Spring Weekend we deserve.
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