Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Party Schools and their offensive mascots
I think it is a good thing for schools to be ranked highly in this poll. Why? well, although some, including some in the forum, may have picked their schools based on either overall prestige (Princeton/Georgetown) or excellence in a particular area (engineering at Illinois or forestry at Iowa State), most people do not. Most people ask themselves a few questions-
1. Is this school going to be fun?
2. Can I afford it?
3. Will there be other prohibitive costs (i.e. travel back and forth, remote location, distance from family, etc) that outweigh benefits?
These rankings, for the masses that want to attend college just to attend college, answers two of the three questions. If you are going to a top ten party school, those benefits are going to outweight ancillary costs in almost every instance, and you are guaranteed to have fun.
Now, another huge benefit is that it is a recruiting tool. A TON of the schools ranked are large state schools that the average high school student would not be able to distinguish from one another (i.e. how would a West High grad know, other things equal, the social differences between UMass, WVU, Penn State, etc...). The student that plays the odds will go where there are more parties with more people, thereby giving him or her the best chance to find people they like.
I am proud that Iowa is holding its own. I will say, however, that big schools have an unquantifiable advantage in these things, and I would put the partying per-capita at some smaller schools, including Midd, Princeton, and Williams up against any of these schools.
As for mascots, I say yes to Seminoles and Fightin' Illini (but you have to revise the mascot/halftime dance, which I think would be a reasonable compromise), and no to the Redskins and the Southeastern Oklahoma Savages and other such similar names. Come on. Savages? What if some southern school decided to be the Slaveowners or Imperialists? They could have a big fat white explorer who went out and cracked a whip and spat tobacco juice all over everyone at halftime. That wouldn't be offensive to any white people, would it? That, in my mind, isn't far from calling native americans savages or redskins.
Cubs in ten minutes.
1. Is this school going to be fun?
2. Can I afford it?
3. Will there be other prohibitive costs (i.e. travel back and forth, remote location, distance from family, etc) that outweigh benefits?
These rankings, for the masses that want to attend college just to attend college, answers two of the three questions. If you are going to a top ten party school, those benefits are going to outweight ancillary costs in almost every instance, and you are guaranteed to have fun.
Now, another huge benefit is that it is a recruiting tool. A TON of the schools ranked are large state schools that the average high school student would not be able to distinguish from one another (i.e. how would a West High grad know, other things equal, the social differences between UMass, WVU, Penn State, etc...). The student that plays the odds will go where there are more parties with more people, thereby giving him or her the best chance to find people they like.
I am proud that Iowa is holding its own. I will say, however, that big schools have an unquantifiable advantage in these things, and I would put the partying per-capita at some smaller schools, including Midd, Princeton, and Williams up against any of these schools.
As for mascots, I say yes to Seminoles and Fightin' Illini (but you have to revise the mascot/halftime dance, which I think would be a reasonable compromise), and no to the Redskins and the Southeastern Oklahoma Savages and other such similar names. Come on. Savages? What if some southern school decided to be the Slaveowners or Imperialists? They could have a big fat white explorer who went out and cracked a whip and spat tobacco juice all over everyone at halftime. That wouldn't be offensive to any white people, would it? That, in my mind, isn't far from calling native americans savages or redskins.
Cubs in ten minutes.
# posted by Unknown : 11:00 AM
