I’m sure a lot of people have heard about the SJB’s decision to shut down all Eclectic events for the rest of the semester. However, what many of you might not know is that there was also an SJB hearing against Beta just weeks ago as well. While I first wrote off the Beta hearing as an attack on the seemingly unwanted Beta by the administration, it would appear that the administration may be taking a more broad attack, and despite the administration’s proclaimed intentions, the attack is on the Wesleyan social scene as a whole.
What would happen if the administration shut down both Beta and Eclectic? Both houses are very involved in the overall social atmosphere at Wesleyan, and the repercussions on student life would be huge. Public Safety busted parties in both 202 and 230 Washington Street last weekend as well, and a lot of students, including myself, have noticed increased patrolling in the two houses, neither of which has ever been associated with partying. Why is the administration deciding to flex its muscles and buckle down on partying? It’s going to happen no matter how much Public Safety and the SJB try to stop it, and measures such as shutting down Eclectic events will only lead to more student-administration conflict.
I personally hope this is not a blatant move towards toning down the party atmosphere at Wesleyan. Wesleyan has never been known as a party school. Compared to other school that we compete with academically, we have significantly less partying on our campus. Does the administration think that partying reflects poorly on the respectability of our school? Of our academic performance?
In high school, I used to get the same speech whenever I got in trouble: “You are an honors student, you should know better than to misbehave. Act like an honors student.” I would hope that a liberal school such as Wesleyan would be far past the unfounded truisms that are spewed by high school principals, but maybe not.
A friend went to visit Yale a couple weekends ago and told me about all the great parties that he went to there. If the administration thinks that creating a campus where the student body quietly shuffles from film screening to art show to non-alcoholic dinner party every weekend will generate a larger pool of highly qualified applicants, it’s sadly mistaken.
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