The incidents reported at last month's Winter Bash have sparked a dialogue between students and the Tufts Programming Board, the event's organizer. While it is obvious that the behavior displayed by some students is unacceptable and intolerable, the coordinators' response raises a greater issue of how major Tufts events in general are conducted.
Following other events from past semesters, such as Spring Fling and Senior Pub Nights, similar e-mails and letters have been distributed by the sponsoring organizations highlighting the crude actions of students from rowdy behavior to property damage to intoxication. Each time, the organization threatens the student body with harsher punishments, stricter entrance requirements and increased police presence.
In a recent letter to the student body, the Programming Board co-chairs discussed students' conduct and mentioned that the state of future Winter Bashes is uncertain. But they also highlighted the faults in their planning of Winter Bash. They recognized the problem of hosting extremely intoxicated students as well as space and lavatory constraints and proposed the solution of stricter monitoring of students at the entrance.
Having approximately 3,500 people in Gantcher Center for a dance party obviously could, and always will, present a problem if even a small fraction of the students need to use the bathroom at the same time. While the inability of individual students to control their bodily fluids remains inexcusable, it is important for Programming Board to take action and implement tangible changes.
For any campus-wide event, both students and administrators must concede some freedoms in order to benefit the group as a whole. In the end, though, when a student goes too far, it is the responsibility of the organizations in charge to evaluate why such events encourage inappropriate behavior and implement some of their proposed amendments. It is important to send a message to the future attendees and prove that such behavior will not be tolerated.
We hope that Programming Board and the Tufts Community Union Senate do not stop there, however, but rather use this instance as an opportunity to address the larger underlying issues. It is time for student groups to put more effort into more diverse social programming. Each semester, Tufts allows campus sites to be turned into party areas. Whether it is Fall Ball, Winter Bash or Spring Fling, the promotion of each high-profile event draws a majority of the student body and encourages the consumption of alcohol.
The issue at hand is difficult because one side always comes away with the short straw. But if Programming Board and the Tufts community want to stop the actions of a few students from reflecting poorly on all of us, it is now necessary to take more active steps to discourage poor conduct at future events.
