Saturday, December 2, 2006 1:06 AM CST
Our View: Let’s celebrate! EIU’s not on this list
By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com
Many college students wouldn’t mind if the school they attend was known as a “party school.”
Campus administrators, community residents and parents undoubtedly have a different view.
And so, probably, would graduates of the institution once they are in the job market.
So it’s not surprising that Eastern Illinois University officials breathed a sigh of relief and no doubt expressed some words of thanks when a college humor Web site failed to list EIU as one of the top 50 party schools in the country.
“No one wants to be known as a ‘party school,’” Eric Davidson, associate director of health services at EIU, said last week in our Ch@t Room page story.
EIU officials acknowledge that there is some partying among students. Anyone who has attended college or lived in a college town can attest to students’ affinity for partying.
Most of the students who attend EIU are in the 18-22 age range, which is the time of life for experimentation and independence. Yes, some students take the party opportunities to extreme.
But those students may have difficulty staying in school for enough years to earn a degree.
It’s not unusual for young people to seek opportunities to party. It happens in non-university settings also. But universities, especially those where the undergrads are the dominant number, are places where thousands of people in that age group are in close proximity.
There was a time when some people would not have been surprised if EIU had been on a list of the top party schools.
Until the early 1990s, the bar-entry age in Charleston was 19. Many students under the age of 21 not only could enter bars but it was easy for those under age to obtain alcohol.
Some young people still manage to obtain alcohol before they legally are eligible. That has occurred for generations.
But, thanks to the efforts of university and municipal officials, that easy access to a liquid party came to a halt.
And so, EIU is not on the party list, as rated by one college humor organization.
The rankings are “an index of the top colleges in the U.S. for having the maximum amount of fun while putting forth the least amount of effort,” according to the CollegeHumor.com site.
Well, there’s an old saying that anything worthwhile is worth working for.
So there’s nothing wrong with students having to work a little harder to have some fun.
The University of Illinois is the only Illinois university on the party list, and yet the U of I also is judged to be a top national university. Most of the top “party schools” are those with strong graduate programs where many students are over the age of 21.
Interesting, also, that four of the top five “party schools” on the list are from the Big 10 Conference -- Michigan State, Indiana, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Purdue.
Many well-known schools top the “party school” list.
What is just as interesting are the schools that are not on the list.
None of the Ivy League schools (and EIU likes to be known as a Midwest Ivy) are on the “party” list. Neither is Duke. Or any of EIU’s fellow Ohio Valley Conference institutions.
Students are going to party to blow off some steam and the stress of classes and papers and projects.
But when it comes to rankings of party schools, this is one time when it’s great to not proclaim, “We’re Number 1!’
-- JG/T-C Editorial Board
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