2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Party reputation still holds concerns
Devon Courtney, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: News
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"The party reputation at UMass was aggrandized by both students and administration," said junior legal studies and history major Michael Tsapatsaris.
Senior computer science major John Brattin had a different perspective.
"I'm annoyed that UMass has a reputation for being a party school," he said. "When I told people I was going to UMass, 90 percent of them made some lame joke about how much I must want to drink. It frustrated and embarrassed me every time I had to explain that in fact I was serious about my studies and that I had no plans to drink at all."
Even the Princeton Review - which in its annual report two years ago cited UMass as the eighth largest party school in the nation - has since dropped UMass from its ranks.
"I think UMass is greatly exaggerated as a party school, and it has the same level of partying as most universities," said junior neuroscience major Deanna De La Cruz. "UMass has a lot to offer students and it is sad that out of its greatest accomplishments, it is outshined by the idea that it is a party school."
Tsapatsaris suspected there were some concrete motives in the ways that both UMass and the media addressed the issue.
"In an attempt to tone down this mythology, the administration has fervently campaigned to end something that was a natural part of the college experience," Tsapatsaris said. "In doing so, they really just made binge drinking worse because everyone is hiding their drinking more to not get in trouble. Also, by attempting to remove the upperclassmen from the freshmen, they got rid of a necessary source of experience for the younger students."
Some students have since argued that the UMass party reputation was fostered through the segregation of freshmen students into "First-Year Experience" housing, and that interaction with upperclassmen is necessary to help freshmen practice restraint while drinking.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Ed Cutting
posted 4/08/08 @ 6:25 AM EST
Do not forget that the same Princeton Review listed UMass as THIRD in the "Long lines & red tape" category.
I argue that there is a relationship -- that the way students are treated affects both student drinking and student violence. (Continued…)
Hobart Lane
posted 4/08/08 @ 10:10 AM EST
No wonder they have fallen off the list. 2003 was the last real party at Umass.
anon
posted 4/08/08 @ 6:17 PM EST
The University of Chicago is not even close to being a premier state school, mostly because it is a private institution.
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