To the Editor:
I would like to address the problems laid forth in the Sept. 27 staff editorial about sober freshman. The article suggests that because new students on campus don't drink, it means they also fail to get involved on campus. It suggests further that because they don't party on the weekends they are missing the college experience.
These students are some of the most involved people I have met. Among the substance free students, there are members of Southside Boys, Kasa, Horse Rescue, Varsity Swimming and Soccer, Intramural Football, APO, and GOLD, among other organizations. They are getting more involved than many of the "normal" students who go out and drink every week and in the long run will make a much bigger impact on the college campus.
As to the insinuations that they stay hidden in their rooms all the time, the article could not have been more wrong. There have been Wal-Mart trips of legend of which I have heard, and other situations which only the wildest of imaginations could entertain. And I don't think that every residence hall has experienced a serenade like Jones Hall. The substance free freshman have more fun than most people on campus, and they have it regardless of their state of soberness.
These students are normal people. They play video games into all hours of the night, yell into all hours of the morning, and blast music so that the whole campus can hear. They are normal college freshman, and to print an article that pressures them to become more "normal" by doing something they don't agree with is a shameful way to represent your newspaper and the college. The article said there weren't many incidents so far. But why is that such a bad thing? Perhaps students are finally beginning to see the fun available without alcohol. Maybe in the future these students will be viewed as examples to the rest of us how to lead a fulfilling life without the forgotten parties, sloppy sex, puking, and other things that we know accompany a "normal" college night out.
-Deanna Richards
RA, Jones Hall