Sarah Wuellner, Staff Writer—
We all love to hang out with our friends and some of us love to listen to music or dance. All students at Denison look forward to the weekend as a way to relax and avoid the worry about attending classes. Even though we are a smaller college, we still enjoy coming together in large groups. One of the common ways people gather on the weekends is to party with their friends.
Weekend parties typically start at 11 p.m., but most people do not show up until around 11:30, or even later. Due to quiet hours, all parties on campus are required to shut down at 1 a.m. on the weekend. This only allows for around an hour and a half of hanging out with fellow Denison students. Over the last few weekends back at Denison, some students have decided to linger after fraternity events are closed for the night by Campus Safety. Although this is stressful for the officers, I believe that it is the students showing they don’t want the parties to end as early. We are college students, not high schoolers who need to be chaperoned at a school dance.
Last year, after Campus Safety shut down one of these events, I asked one officer why they shut down parties at 1 a.m. The officer responded by saying that he was simply following quiet hour protocol. I asked if parties could go longer and he said I would have to take up the issue with the Student Life Office. It would be nice to extend quiet hours by an hour, but I understand that will upset some students. However, there are other solutions that could be considered.
The obvious solution would be to extend quiet hours until 2 a.m. Another would be to start the parties earlier, whether that be 9 or 10 p.m. Students often join their friends around this time anyway to get ready for parties scheduled for later. Having a longer party allows people to come and go as they please (or stay the whole time). Why don’t we start the parties earlier at night so the fun doesn’t get cut off early?
Starting parties earlier is a logical and easy solution, but sometimes students are hesitant to show up at the exact time the party is advertised to begin. They might be nervous to be the first ones there, or they might think that it’s boring to show up before there is a crowd. This stigma about waiting till there is a large number of people is silly as someone has to be the first at the party or no one will ever show up.
Many students might not know where they want to go on the weekend nights. Fraternities can host parties on their patios when it’s warm out. There are also two buildings that can be used, Sunset Basement and Lamson Lodge, that can be reserved for these events. Students can sometimes feel torn about where they want to go if two different groups are hosting parties and both sound fun. Another reason it might sway a student’s decision is which party will have the most people. If parties lasted longer then there would be more time to switch between different parties.
There are other events on Denison’s campus on the weekend, but often as late at night. Some may not enjoy the party scene, which is understandable, but those who do have complained in recent weeks about parties having to be shut down as it seems premature. We should all rethink the party scene so that we can have more time to spend time together as a community.