Rowdy Drunken College Students
I read an article about Northwestern University students in Evanston, Illinois, and the community’s complaints against them. The article, written by Bob Seidenberg, discusses the need for city council to call a meeting to address the problems of rowdy drunken college students disturbing the peace and quiet of the evenings, by wandering around and through Evanston homes late at night. The underling issue is, is this Northwestern’s problem, or simply a lack of respect from youths today?
The drunken rowdy college students have always, and will always be around. However, the Evanston community has progressively seen the situation get worse. The college students are beginning to buy houses next door to families with young children, which, potentially causes a problem. While there are no laws forbidding NU students living off campus, people in these areas are becoming upset with the result of the students living in next door. When you have students whose primary focus, beginning on a Thursday night, is to become completely “plastered”; living next door to the middle school child trying to sleep, problems arise. The parents of these children are sick of the students behavior, and are voicing their complaints.
Jane Evans was quoted saying, “These students are supposed to be the cream of the crop, but we would assert, and many of our neighbors would agree, that these students feel grossly entitled to run wild in our streets without any respect for the community in which they live.” (pg. 18) This quote is more than true. I have spent many nights at my friend’s house, and the next morning there will be empty beer cups all over the yard, and most of the night we were kept up by yelling and laughing college students running up and down the streets; she lives in the thick of the college student off campus housing.
The only problem is, whose fault is it? Northwestern University has on campus housing; however, the University is completely engulfed within the community. Living off campus is one of the benefits of going to NU, because the community and environment around the campus is extremely college oriented. When you have an environment that is so conducive to the typical college student, obviously they are going to treat the surrounding territory as their territory. So then the issue really becomes, whose fault is it? Who is to blame for the noise complaints and the rude, rowdy behavior?
The key to the transformation of boys to men within Graves Hall is nurturing by ushering a sense of responsibility and respect through stiff rules and policies. Each resident hall on the campus of Morehouse College is governed by the Resident Housing Association. Although the RHA implies rules to all of its residence halls, it is up to the staff within the halls to enforce and determine the magnitude at which they will enforce the rules. It is apparent from many freshman students that the rules in their halls are not fully enforced and Graves Hall has the most enforced rules out of all other freshman living quarters. ...
In “Two Years Are Better than Four”, Liz Addison argues against Rick Perlstein’s article “What’s the Matter With College?”. While Perlstein questions the value of college as it currently is, Addison argues that the “community college system is America’s hidden public service gem”(Addison 257). By way of that, she defends the value of college. Unsurprisingly, as with most situations, the truth is somewhere in between ends of a spectrum created by these two articles. While I agree with Addison’s idea of community college being an accessible starting point for everyone, she fails to appropriately represent the unique culture often found in these types of colleges. Also, I think that she also fails to look at the overall purpose of attending school and then neglects to acknowledge the benefits of a four year university.
In her article “College Is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird attempts to pursued her readers that colleges are overflowing with students who don’t belong there. Her article first appeared in Psychology Today (May 1975). Since this material is outdated, I find it hard to believe that most of the responses by students and parents quoted in the article still hold true. The author has set out to pursue the readers that college is a bad and unnecessary choice for today’s youth. Yet the author holds a bachelors and a masters degree from two different universities. I would think that if she thought college was really a bad choice and a waste of time and money, she would not have gone back to get her masters degree.
The customs that college students go through are mostly a result of the environment they live in. The walls of college sports arenas everywhere have advertisements from alcohol industry sponsors somewhere, even if it is in the smallest area, it is still visible. Magness Arena does not have advertisements on the walls but they do sell beer to students. I have seen many students that go to University of Denver get alcohol when at a game. Local establishments near campus that serve or sell alcohol, depend on the college clientele for their financial success. These students that help with the local establishments normally get their beer for parties. Many people think that it will be easier to meet people at party if there is alcohol. When the majority of students look at a college they look at the sports teams, academics, and they actually...
It is important to differentiate between the type of college student that is the target of Eighner’s criticism in his essay and the average college student. Eighner mentions here how he specifically targeted areas that he knew affluent college students lived in and would be bountiful to scavenge from:
College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking among college students is a widespread problem that occurs on campuses of all sizes and geographic locations. A recent survey of college students conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health reported that 44 percent of respondents had drunk more than five drinks (four for women) consecutively in the previous two weeks. About 23 percent had had three or more such episodes during that time. The causes of this problem are the fact that students are living by themselves no longer with parents or guardians; they earn their own money; students need to be a part of a group, be accepted; and they have the wrong idea that to feel drunk is “cool.”
Sander, Libby. "The Chronicle of Higher Education: Students Try to Break Taboo Around Social Class on Campus." BATTEN CONNECTION. ( ): n. page. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. .
Caroline Bird writes the statement in her 1975 article “The Case Against College (Bird 15-18)” that not every high school graduate is ready to attend college. It is 2010 and this article is still valid today. Some of the college students I have been around were not mature enough for obedience school let alone college. A few of the points she makes in the article are: College has never worked its magic for everyone. Does it make you a better person? Are colleges responsible for your children? Are my children living in a country club? I will use some of my own experiences as an example of college life, as well as examples from my daughter’s college experience, along with my nephews as well. All to find the answer to the big question: Are you ready for a college education?
The next thing I would like to mention is the sudden change in enforcement of this alcohol policy. I have been on this campus for three years and I have seen an abrupt change in the way administrators enforce the alcohol policy.
Potter, Claire. "Should They Stay or Should They Go?: A Few Thoughts on Who is 'Supposed' To Be in College.". The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2011. Web. 16 November 2013.
This is one of the more highly dangerous areas to drink for underaged drinkers. This is a big deal for kids that live on campus and a far away from home. Imagine a college dorm, full of underaged college students, getting dangerously drunk. A lot of people may not think that is all that dangerous and it’s just harmless fun. That it’s normal for young college kids to party like that. Well, those people are wrong. People have been passing out and choking on their own vomit in their unconscious state. In other words, they die. They cou...
Over 49% of the college students within America do not consume alcohol on a regular basis (Lankford, 2007). However, a significant percentage of these students lack the control to abuse alcohol when they start consuming it. The annual Health College Alcohol Study indicates that the social interaction within a majority of the societal settings has significantly been affected by the increased amount of alcoholic consumption. This has seen the rise of fights and disorderly communities, especially within those areas where colleges are set up. ...
Having longer open house hours or no time limit on open house hours can benefit the student’s relationships. They would have more bonding time to make their friendships stronger. Students lives would be happier and less stressful if they did not have to worry about whether or not their friends from the opposite gender can be in their room at certain times. Sometimes students just need a friend to talk to late at night, or a shoulder to cry on when things get tough, especially since we are young adults just leaving home. We deal with quite a few changes in our lives trying to adapt without our family being around, so having friends is going to be important, and we should not be limited on when they can see each other. Friends are like family to college
In “The Case Against College” Linda Lee tells us exactly who belongs in college, they are “the high-achieving student who is interested in learning for learning’s sake…. And those who seem certain to go on to advanced degree’s in law, medicine, architecture, and the like,” (670). But just because there are certain people who belong in school does not mean that those are the people that attend. Those who are more privileged just happen to be in a position that allows them to partake in certain amenities, one of them being a higher standard of
In my conclusion some people see college students as party animals and that they don't have to do their school work, but thats in the movies it's not real. Real college students do the work if they want to go far. Yes, there is some college students like to party a lot but they learn real fast what happens when they don't do their work their grades go down and it hurts them badly. So must students have a part time job and are full time college students they work hard to get where they want to be college is a lot of work. It’s not easy college is not like the movies out there its way different.