As CU holds alcohol screenings for students throughout the week to gauge individual drinking patterns, some CU students and community members say they don’t think CU’s party school reputation has changed much in recent years.
The most recent results of the Princeton Review’s annual surveys featured CU on the top of the party and marijuana lists with CU placed as number 13 for party schools and the third spot for “reefer madness.”
This is a step down from previous rankings, where CU ranked number one on the party school list in 2003.
Bronson Hilliard, CU director of media relations and spokesman, says he isn’t sure if the Princeton Review’s rankings for CU are accurate.
“Well that’s sort of hard to say,” Hilliard said. “I think those rankings are stupid anyway. I think rankings about lifestyle notions are completely inaccurate because they’re not based off reality.”
Hilliard does not say that CU is exempt from the party school title, only in that it is reflective of similar institutions of higher learning across the country.
“This institution, like every other college and university in the country could do better on the topic of drugs and alcohol in student life,” Hilliard said.
Hilliard said CU worked hard to move CU from the number one party spot to where it stands today.
“We got tougher on drug and alcohol violations and came out with the two strikes and you’re out policy,” Hilliard said.
Hilliard said that CU communicates with students on the lifestyle topics of partying early on, beginning summer of their freshman year, during orientation, at move-in and throughout the year.
Hilliard also said that CU is not naïve and doesn’t think the university can stop students from partying.
“What we’re saying is not ‘don’t drink,’ but ‘don’t drink till you pass out and die,’” Hilliard said. “We’re trying to elevate a safety message.”
Besides safety Hilliard says CU focuses on debunking expectations about parties and encouraging CU students who don’t drink or do drugs to maintain that lifestyle.
The media is often cited as an important source for the public’s opinion on CU.
Jeff Dodge, editor of CU’s staff and faculty newspaper Silver and Gold Record, confirmed the media’s importance in CU’s reputation.
“Like we said, it’s kind of a two-sided coin,” Dodge said in reference to the media’s role.
The Silver and Gold Record featured an editorial in the April 2 edition of the paper that focused on the folding of the Rocky Mountain News and how the loss of a daily newspaper could impact CU’s reputation.
The editorial said that one less paper means one less watchdog, and one less outlet for CU’s accomplishments.
“The Rocky has always been there to tell our story, for better or worse, and document the history of CU’s first 133 years,” the editorial reads.
The editorial also says that the Rocky has faithfully reported on the good and the bad of CU, and how the loss of that will impact the school.
“Some in the CU community- especially for those who survived the media circus around the 2004 Title IX football controversy and the 2005 Ward Churchill brouhaha-might think that having fewer watchdogs sniffing around for dirty laundry will be good for CU’s public image,” the editorial said. “The Rocky did its fair share of sensationalistic piling on during the football controversy and the Churchill matter. But the flip side is that it also means there are fewer avenues for CU get its ‘good news’ in print, and fewer editorial voices to trumpet CU’s causes.”
Hilliard said that student events like CU’s annual 4/20, which will occur on Monday, often put CU in the media in a negative way.
“Stuff like 4/20 doesn’t help the party reputation,” Hilliard said. “One stupid party like that destroys our hard work.”
Students and community members outside of CU have varying opinions then the general student body on the party reputation of the school.
“CU is an okay school but everyone here is the trustifarians who think they’re the next best thing since cold beer,” said Chris Fehn, a 20-year-old geological engineer major at the Colorado School of Mines.
Fehn also said he thinks that CU is a party school and not a research or academic flagship school.
“When I hear someone goes here I don’t think you’re smart, I think you party a lot, but they could be smart I guess,” Fehn said.
Forrest Beeler, a 24-year-old paint store manager, is an alum of the University of Kentucky and did not go to CU, but said he also believes CU is a party school.
“People are fucking nuts here,” Beeler said. “They’re a bunch of pot-smoking hippies.”
While Beeler said he thinks CU is a school of partying hippies, he also emphasized that it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
For some CU students, the title of a party school is unjustified.
“I knew I was coming to a liberal school,” said Devin Bozzelli, a 19-year-old freshman theatre major. “When I think of a party school though, I think ASU.”
Bozzelli said she admits that she isn’t involved enough in the party scene at CU to judge whether or not the Princeton Review’s ranking is justified.
“I’m not in the party scene so I don’t know how big of a party school it is, but I do know people smoke a lot of marijuana here although I wouldn’t know if qualifies it to be number three in the rankings,” Bozzelli said.
CU will hold a final free alcohol screening for students Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside Baby Doe’s in the UMC.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Emily Zarka at Emily.zarka@colorado.edu.
