Senior Cocktails: Give 2011 a Chance to Prove Ourselves

, by Arielle Hixson,

Since freshman year, we’ve heard all the enthralling myths about the most magical social event of senior year: Senior Cocktails. Rumor has it that the night begins smoothly—an evening bus ride to a secret location where the senior class can join together for a night of festivities and fun. After seniors have danced the night away they return back on the bus to Wesleyan.

Senior Cocktails have been described as a spectacular time in which seniors can enjoy a small vacation from Wes and bond together as a celebration for working hard throughout the past four years.

And then, of course, there’s the key word emphasized in discussions about the event and in the event itself: cocktails. For some reason, the “epic” idea of drinking until you’re blackout drunk has increasingly developed into one of the most important elements of senior events.

Each year we hear the tantalizing tales of people passing out on the dance floor, hooking up on the buses, and committing explicit acts in inappropriate areas. It was wild. It was fun. It was unbelievable. It was Cocktails.

Although these stories are intriguing, many overlook the most prominent detail of these events: these infamous stories that seemingly characterize Senior Cocktails do not belong to the class of 2011.  It may be a hidden incentive that outrageous behavior tends to happen at Cocktails, but it doesn’t guarantee that each class will turn out the same.

Unfortunately, the class of 2011 has been penalized for events at past cocktails, which makes absolutely no sense. The earlier classes may have had some mishaps that have raised eyebrows, but why do we have to pay for their outlandish mistakes? In a nutshell: it isn’t fair.

Each class should be given the same opportunity for senior events unless that specific class, during their senior year, has disrespected the privileges. If the class of 2011 is punished for something that they haven’t done, how does that fix a hypothetical problem? Sure we may have learned how to behave, but we were also denied the opportunity to prove that we could behave respectfully in an adult situation. Senior cocktails have not been removed, thank goodness, but they have been modified to focus on “activities” that aren’t solely focused on dancing and socializing.

If the administration wanted to teach the class of 2011 about appropriate behavior at cocktails, they should have directly told the class what they expected. At the very least, seniors could have attended a meeting at the beginning of the year addressing what behavior is tolerated during cocktails and what the consequences are for behaving inappropriately.

Hopefully this year the senior class will prove that Senior Cocktails do not have to be scandalous events full of animalistic behavior. Ironically, the senior class has a lot riding on this as they must behave appropriately not only for themselves but for the underclassmen as well. Again, it isn’t fair, but it is what it is. Hopefully it will change.

Hixson is a member of the class of 2011.

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    I’ll start by saying that i really want to agree with what you are saying here, as I have a lot at stake. I’m a junior, I’m really looking forward to senior cocktails, and I’m a little bummed that they have been changed from their original form to a series of hokey-ish activity-focused outings.

    At the same time, I am inclined to take the position of whoever it was who decided to make the changes. Over the past several years, cocktails has been pretty disgraceful: We’ve harassed bus drivers to the point that they refuse to work for the school, we’ve fought and brawled in public places, we’ve gotten disgustingly drunk to the point that we’ve been out of control, and we’ve generally portrayed the school, and with it the student body, in a downright shameful manner. As the behavior persisted across several class years, I see every reason to change the event for future classes. How else do we address this, other than just leave it be with some apologist “kids will be kids” sort of attitude?

    If you are trying to make an argument for the class of 2011 being somehow “different,” it dosn’t seem like you have very much to work with. From what i’ve heard, some of the actions taken by students at Senior Cocks #1 are up there to stay in Wesleyan lore as among our most offensive and embarrassing moments in recent memory.

    I’ll agree, its a shame cocks is the way it is now. At the same time, I think the lameness is our fault, not that of the administration. You can not expect them to take no action at all after an event has been fucked up not once, not twice, but multiple times, on the grounds that the next class might be “different” from the multitude of previous examples.

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