my soapbox of the day

[_worldscollide]

This article summarizes nearly exactly what I feel and want people to know about MSU. Sometimes, I feel very stereotyped, just because I go to what is considered a 'party school.' Truth be told, I saw just as much bad drinking behavior while at the U of M--Twin Cities, which is considered a prestigious public school

Comments

[jglovecr]

You know, i totally agree with you on this. It sucks being stereotyped as alcoholics and that we party 24/7 just because of the school that we go to. Honestly, i am disappointed that when i was applying to colleges, that i only applied to two of them. One of them i was not accepted to. I was a little reluctant about coming here. I was first embarassed to tell people that i would be going to mankato because it is known as the "party school" with easy everything (classes and grades and such). And now with these incidences, it is rather unfortunate that people (eg. the media and the misinformed man that wrote the trib) are just reinforcing these stereotypes

[sarabentley]

Just a side comment about notifying parents, while it would be nice to be considered separate from our parents now - we're not. My example is health care insurance. When I had to send a resident of mine to detox, gustavus was required to notify her parents. Why? Because a little trip to detox costs $2,000 and if her parent's insurance didn't cover it...well, you get the picture.
Anywho, that's really ridiculous about the bad rap you guys have been getting; I agree with Jordan that any school you go to there will be dangerous and irresponsible drinking, not just in Mankato. Sorry chica =(

[_worldscollide]

I'm not saying we're not separated from our parents. God knows I couldn't live without my daily phone calls and all the support I get from both my mother and father. However, one of the reasons I am at college is to learn to be less dependent on them. Rather than call them if I were to be reported for drinking, I think I'd learn a better lesson to be punished in different ways

[caziques]

Carleton is really, really intense about student independence--unless you're arrested, basically, your parents will probably not hear from the college in regard to drinking. The college deals with everything in the context of our community. While this hasn't been the best for our relationship with the community (who seem to think, surprisingly, that we are all lushes and party constantly, in contrast to St. Olaf, a dry campus, where--in the community's eyes--everyone goes to chapel every day [point: I sympathize with rough reputations]), it makes the campus drinking culture extremely safe. No one hesitates to call security if someone is sick, there are rules that protect underage drinkers from being punished when they're helping friends, and there are very few drinking-related hospitalizations. It's a policy we're really proud of, and that has at least some support within the administration, where they realize that we're probably going to drink, so we might as well do it safely.

Just thoughts.

[_worldscollide]

I think that's pretty brilliant. I wish many schools would adopt a policy such as Carleton's. Even the best of universities and colleges can not prevent drinking, so I don't think that should be the biggest focus.