Many of we, the tuition-paying SU parents, were on vacation when the party ranking hit the media. Our reaction? Many of us chuckled and rolled our eyes. No gnashing of teeth, rending of garments, calls to action. Perhaps this collective shrugging had to do with the ranking coming at a time when we were on the beach reaching for another glass of chardonnay rather than toiling in our offices? I don’t think so. I think it had more to do with our own college experiences.  I went to school in the ‘70s, the Animal House era, attending a small Virginia college that was in a 1976 Playboy magazine article titled “What’s Really Happening On Campus” as one of the biggest party schools. As I recall, the administration just yawned at this designation. There was no cracking down on parties, no canceling of events.

Whether it’s 2014, 1976 or 1910 — any time you have a bunch of young people on a campus living together, with the pressure to attend multiple classes, study, meet deadlines, turn in projects, pass finals, keep grade point averages up, deal with homesickness, negotiate social situations, obtain internships and make life and career decisions — they are going to blow off steam and have fun on the weekends. Show me a school that has no partying on campus and I’ll show you a seminary in a dry town on an uncharted island.

So the SU Chancellor’s hand-wringing letter with worries over the school’s reputation and talk of cracking down came as a both a surprise and an ill-advised overreaction, keeping alive a story that would most likely have already been pushed off the internet by Kim Kardashian’s latest selfie.  Better to use that ink touting the amazing academic things the Syracuse students are accomplishing, partying or not.

As the one who writes the checks for my Dean’s List student’s tuition, I put forth that actions such as the recent shutting down of the kids’ beloved Castle Court and similar retaliatory actions will do nothing to stop partying. What it will do is backfire by keeping this ridiculous ranking story alive, pushing the parties to another location and angering the students. Coming out as it did in 1978 when I was a junior, I well remember the Animal House scene with Bluto’s infamous call to arms after Dean Wormer’s retaliatory actions against partying. And we all know how that turned out.

Sandi Parker
Mother of SU student