AUGUST 20, 1998

First Night or Block Party:

This year, the old Block Party, at which students who were of legal drinking age were allowed to bring in beer and wine, made way for a new event called First Night, which was alcohol -free and attracted mostly freshmen

Block Party alienated underage students

Leslie Hitchcock
News Editor

The sudden cancellation of the famed Block Party shocked many students two years ago.  The biggest community party of the year was a time when students could see friends that they hadn’t seen all summer and catch up.

This sounds a lot like the First Night party that was created this year, except one key component: no alcohol was allowed on the premises.  In many students’ opinions, First Night was a cruel joke that taunted the fact that the Block Party was gone.

In actuality, First Night is a bridge to the future.  A future where alcohol will be incorporated in fewer social settings of university life.  A future that has started right now.

As all of you know, there is an epidemic that has been evolving on college campuses for decades.  The new terminology that has swept the nation is Binge Drinking.  I know all of you are familiar with instances at MIT and LSU, but how much do you know about the binge drinking related deaths at UNC-Chapel Hill?  That one hits closer to home.

Administrators across the country have been told to get their programs under control, or the government will intervene.  When you run a campus the size of ours or even larger, that is a daunting task...one which our administrators have taken on in stride.

And one way our university officials have attempted this is to eliminate the Block Party, and instate a non-alcoholic First Night.

Last year, in a speech to SGA, the chancellor stated “that student freedom is of ‘paramount concern’” to the administration, but he also said that “it is a student’s responsibility to remain safe and aware of his or her condition.”  The student’s responsibility.  We, being Americans, know that perception is everything.

If the administration perceives that students are more responsible with themselves, then maybe they won’t handle us with as much suspicion.  Then we’ll get our freedom back to drink as we please in social settings.  That’s something to think about.

The Block Party was seen as an alcohol-centered event, which segregated half of the student population.  In the days of the Block Party, under-agers either drank before coming or had to watch students of age drink in front of them.  Just because most of us had the wrong birth year, we couldn’t join in on all the fun around us legally?  Yeah, that was fair.  First Night gives all students on our campus an equal opportunity to have fun in a public setting.

While drinking is fun, the reason why we attend college is not to drink without consequence for four years, but to get a degree that will get us a job.  A degree.  A job.  That equals the big world, and most of us are as scared of that as we were of college our freshman year.

Partying is fun, and tons of students, including myself, indulge in it.  However, partying without studying decreases our likelihood of graduating, which then decreases the likelihood of getting a degree, which, in turn, makes it really hard to find a decent job.

Even though it annoys us when the university makes rules about binge drinking and public drunkenness, they’re doing it for our own good, and theirs.  High graduation rates and success in the workplace percentages help attract incoming students who are interested in making something of themselves.

You can yell and scream about administration infringing on your First Amendment rights, but when you have a crappy job later on, you’ll be kicking yourself for screwing around so often now.

Gone are the days of “Animal House” fraternity drunkenness, because if the government steps in to regulate alcohol consumption, our fun-loving days as college students will be watched very carefully.  When we show our responsibility to ourselves, maybe we’ll get to enjoy a Block Party again.  Until then, I guess we’ll just have to live with it. 

University too quick to jump on the "PC"  bandwagon

Mike Daniels
Editor-in-Chief

Four years ago, I arrived at Appalachian State University as a scared little out-of-state freshman who knew not one single soul in Boone.

One of my very earliest memories from that fall of 1995 was going to something that, at the time, was called the Block Party with my roommate.

Being just 18 years old and not knowing anyone, we basically sulked around and soaked in the college atmosphere, of which we were now a part of, for the first time.

We watched the thousands of lucky juniors and seniors who were of age, drinking and enjoying themselves immensely.

Although we spent the entire night sitting, talking to each other, and walking back and forth across the expanse of the biggest party in Boone, we were not totally depressed.  We had a comforting thought that kept making us feel just a little bit better about ourselves.

That thought was that in four years, we would be the ones drinking, dancing, talking to people we hadn’t seen all summer, and having tons of fun.

Monday night, almost four years later to the day, I went, not as a seeker of fun, but as a journalist, to a party that was nothing more than a pathetic shell of what it once was. My old roommate, who I still hang out with to this day, didn’t even bother.  He went out and ate wings and drank beer instead.

So what killed what was once bar-none, the biggest and best party of the year at ASU?

The answer is simple; no beer.

The university, in an effort to conform to the PC gods that are starting to rule this society, decided that it was time to get rid of what was the only university sanctioned event in which students were allowed to bring alcohol.

The administration says that it is not kosher to do things that way anymore.  It wants to eliminate what it considers to be the biggest enemy of academic college life.

The fact is, the writing was on the wall that this would happen two years ago.  The party moved from its central location in the area in front of Varsity Gymnasium, to the remote plateau where the baseball field is now, in 1996. Then, last year, it was canceled, due to what the university said was the  lack of a suitable site to hold the party.

Funny, but I clearly remember Sanford Mall, the site of this year’s lame First Night, and the area where the party was held in ’95, being a part of the campus last year.

Director of Student Programs Dave Robertson was quoted in the first issue of last year’s The Appalachian as saying, “The University has spent a lot of money over the last few years to get the mall in shape and make it a nice place for students to hang out.  Having that many people there might have done a lot of damage to it.”

Now, a year later, the University has found the site quite suitable for an alcohol-free party which drew only about 1,500 to 2,000 people, as compared to the 5,000 to 7,000 the Block Party used to draw.

The fact is, the university wanted to kill the Block Party as it was when it assumed control of it in 1994.  Back then, it was a big, fun outdoor drinking and dancing fest for all the evil people who go to college to enjoy themselves a little bit.

Now, we, the students at Appalachian who enjoy that sort of thing, find ourselves out on the street, casualties of a national war on college drinking.

And while I don’t advocate the kind of binge-drinking that killed so many college students around the country last year, I do advocate people’s right to have a few beers and yes, even get drunk if they want.

Heck, part of the reason that we have so many people who abuse alcohol in this country is because our government does its best to brainwash children’s thinking about alcohol and then set up a “Garden of Eve” situation in which it hopes everyone believes the propaganda and doesn’t eat the apple.

The only problem is that when these kids do finally give in to temptation, which always happens sooner or later, they don’t just give in a little, they go all out, like a pit bull who hasn’t eaten in a week being let out of a cage.

It’s a lot like what psychologists say about letting anger out a little at a time rather than keeping it all pent up inside until there is an explosion.

That’s all we as students want, the chance to let out a little steam together in the fun and safe environment that the Block Party once provided.

As for us seniors, we wanted our chance to have the kind of fun we saw upperclassmen having four years ago.

Now, because of the PC tidal wave, the best we can do is get a few six-packs, rent a copy of “Animal House,” and reminisce about the good old days.

Thank you for visiting The Appalachian Online. We hope you enjoy browsing our site to catch up on the latest news that affects Appalachian State University and our community. We welcome your ideas and suggestions.

E-mail The Appalachian Online at theapp@conrad.appstate.edu