College nights face changes

By Catherine Bratic     11/20/08 6:00pm

College nights at Rice have become synonymous with drunken antics, crazy costumes and class disruptions. But in the past few weeks as professors have become more and more frustrated with inebriated lecture interruptions, colleges have encouraged their students to curb the raucous trouble in a desperate effort to save college night. At a recent meeting of college masters and presidents, those in attendance agreed to temper their troublemaking on those days for fear that college nights will be more disruptive than fun, Martel College Master Jerry Dickens said.

Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman acknowledged that there had been previous incidents which concerned him, but that he generally trusted students to obey the guidelines.

In keeping with Brown's office-themed college night last Friday, Master Steven Cox gave a lecture on the evolution of cooperation in the Brown commons so that students would not partake in imprudent behavior in their classes, college night planner and Brown senior Bhavika Kaul said.

---

---

Brown Master Laura Cox said this lunchtime lecture encouraged students to participate in a real lecture within their college.

"To prevent people from going to class and drinking, Steve gave a talk - an actual one of his lectures with a PowerPoint presentation - at lunch in the commons," Master Laura Cox said. "And the students sat through that and could do whatever they wanted to do. This was to prevent students from going into class and drinking."

Will Rice issued a warning to students about their behavior before their Oil Barons and Texas Queens college night, Will Rice college night coordinator Samantha Berkey said.

"We trust most of the people in our college," Berkey, a sophomore, said. "People had heard about the stuff that had happened at other college nights and were respectful."

Martel social Kendall Hollis said the only change to Martel's Disney character-themed college night was that all students were strongly encouraged to behave properly and to not drink in class. Hollis, a junior, said the changes Martel made were motivated by the reaction to events at Jones College's college night earlier this semester, where Jones students drinking in a Mathematics 211 class were disciplined for their inappropriate behavior.

"I know that [college night] can get out of hand," Hollis said. "Especially in recent years, it's gotten really bad. The obvious drinking and the treatment of the professors is really awful. It definitely interferes with the learning environment of the classroom, and that's definitely not okay. Most people in the classroom are not having their college night, and they shouldn't have to deal with the trouble being caused by the minority."

Despite the worries about recent behavior, Kaul said she believes the problem can be resolved.

"I really hope it is something that we can fix," Kaul, a senior, said. "I've had college night for the past four years and really enjoyed it, but I think that we have to be careful because if more incidents happen, there is a chance that in the future it might be canceled.

---