TSL‘s Special Features section this week looks at parties and party culture across the Claremont Colleges. Many students seem to associate parties with music, dance, socializing and fun, as they should. If one were to examine the results of partying over the past week, however, bias-related incidents and destruction of property would come to mind. We appreciate and enjoy the availability of party culture at the 5Cs, and we urge students to preserve this opportunity by choosing safe and respectful ways to enjoy the weekend. At risk of stating the obvious, this means students should not break or steal things while partying, and no occasion should be treated as an excuse for racist or sexist remarks.
The combination of students, weekend nights and alcohol predictably results in mischief across campuses. Traffic cones semi-regularly appear in unexpected places. Random bouts of yelling wake those unfortunate enough to be sleeping. Chalk messages addressing TSL materialize all over Bixby Plaza.
All of this is in good fun, until the mischief turns bad. There’s no need to damage property while drinking. There’s no excuse for joking “Letters to the Editor” to become racist, misogynistic or homophobic. It’s possible, even common, for students to have a full night out without consequences the next morning, except maybe a headache and temporary sensitivity to light.
We hope our fellow students have as much fun as they can when they go out, but we urge them to maintain a basic level of decency. Don’t be racist or homophobic or misogynistic. Don’t break or take things that aren’t yours. We understand alcohol causes slips in judgment, but these are basic societal norms. Following these should be second nature.
Otherwise, as with the case of Pub this week, the opportunities for going out may just go away.