I have heard several accounts of this year's recent Winter Bash in which students say they loved the event. But unfortunately, I have heard many others in which students have expressed dismay and embarrassment at the behavior of their fellow Tufts students. I was there. I saw both.
Clearly, the vast majority of those of you who attended the event were able to enjoy each other's company and the setting. But I have to tell you that an alarming number of students were in no condition to enjoy anything and spoiled it for others. And I am not referring only to the 15 to 20 of you who spent most of the night in the medical triage room, where the paramedics were trying to make sure you didn't die due to your level of intoxication. I am referring also to the friends of those fifteen who facilitated their drinking. I am referring also to the several students who interfered with event staff trying to help some of the drunks who couldn't quite walk on their own. I am referring also to the rude, arrogant individuals who apologized for disdainful behavior towards several Tufts staff by saying, "Sorry, I thought you worked for the hotel." I am referring also to the myriad students who threw up all over the place and everyone who thought it was okay for the hotel staff to clean up the mess. And I'm referring to the male student and the female student who decided that urinating in the middle of the lobby was okay. Really?
The Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, the Office for Campus Life Event Staff, Programming Board and the Department of Public Safety have begun to review Winter Bash. There is strong consensus that the planning for any future event has to address the evidently widespread belief that Winter Bash is a time to get outrageously drunk and go to a classy Boston hotel. We have to do better.
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Bruce Reitman is the university's Dean of Student Affairs. He can be reached at Bruce.Reitman@tufts.edu.
