War on Fun

The War on Fun is a term used by students to refer to the recent perceived crack-down by the administration on campus events, particularly those involving alcohol. This includes a campaign by the administration to prevent students from going to any parties except the co-opted, regulated, lame "events" sanctioned by the aforementioned administration, as well as an increase in breaking-up of parties in the dorms, more and more of which are resulting in judicial consequences for the hosts. The administration began its campaign around 2006.

The War

While there is no acknowledged official campaign by the administration, the state of war is inferred by students from administrative actions overt and covert. Of the latter, the most often cited example is the administration's refusal to place an extra security guard on duty on weekend nights at East Campus, when long lines of students waiting to swipe in stretch out onto Ancel Plaza. Due to its configuration of mostly suites around large living rooms, EC has traditionally been a popular location to host parties. Students have interpreted the administrative indifference to the logistical nightmare of getting into EC on Friday and Saturday night as a passive attempt to discourage parties.

More overt acts include the co-option and over-regulation of underground or popular activities, such as the "40s on 40" tradition into watered-down fenced-off event that eventually became so expensive and unpopular that it was cancelled. Similarly, Bacchanal is no longer allowed to hold parties off campus, i.e., at establishments serving beverages of the ethanol persuasion.

Perhaps the most egregious overt crack-down of a campus fixture was the administrations inexplicable decision to effectively kill off the 40-year-old Postcrypt Coffeehouse folk concert venue on the basis of a hyperbolic Bwog comment.

The ongoing NYPD crackdown on loose restrictions on IDs in local bars is often lumped in with the War on Fun but is actually merely an unfortunate coincidence.

One ironic consequence of the War on Fun has been a dramatic increase in membership of Columbia's fraternities and sororities, which traditionally played a peripheral role in the campus social scene. The greek organizations have benefited from the administrations willingness to allow them to self-police. But students looking for fun should probably consider downtown and Brooklyn. You came to Columbia so you could party in the city rather than at a frat anyway, right?

Alcohol Policy

Part of the War included a stringent enforcement of "Noise Policy" in dormitories by RAs, and the enforcement of an apparent ban on consumption of alcohol in suite common rooms (on the basis that they were "public spaces"). In effect this meant that a senior of legal drinking age living in a Hogan suite with 3 other drinking age classmates was forbidden from consuming a beer in his own living room while watching TV. Rather, said senior would have to take the beer to his room first, where he or she could then proceed to consume it, unmolested by this asinine policy.

When CCSC undertook a campaign to reach a compromise solution on these rules, the administrators expressed their bizarrely Victorian view that the alcohol issue was no more than a blight on a "purely academic institution." That was February. One month later CCSC announced that their efforts at working with the administration had progressed to being "ignored" by Dean Scully Kromm of residential life. A few weeks later the administration decided to reach out to the councils: after finally meeting with council members and expressing a desire to move forward, Scully Kromm also informed them that the administration was already working on a new policy, and the students weren't going to be shown it.

External links

• http://www.bwog.net/index.php?article_id=4843 (Currently broken)