Just a year ago, Penn State was given the meaningless distinction of #1 Party School by the Princeton Review. After a tumultuous year, where we saw the tragic death of Joe Dado, the ‘This America Life’ podcast and the endless controversy over meaningless faux drinking holidays, Penn State has been dropped to #3 and the University of Georgia has been given the #1 spot.

While this news is certainly a relief for administrators, it should also come as a major weight off the shoulders of students and their livers, who will no longer feel like they need to maintain the heavy drinking standard that comes attached with the #1 Party School distinction. Also, our ‘holidays’ will hopefully not be so inundated with students from other colleges who feel the need to wreak havoc and clog up our bar lines.

But what does that mean that we were dropped to #3? It means we acted like juveniles and drank recklessly.

Some of the major issues regarding irresponsible and underage drinking were highlighted by our year on top. When Joe Dado’s death came early on in the year, it should have come as a warning to everyone that had hoped to continue the culture of outrageous drinking behavior that had led to his untimely death. And remember the fraternity scandals that led to the loss of the privilege to throw parties? And then came the coverage by “This American Life” that gave a crystal clear portrait of what nightlife is like at Penn State and the impact it has on our State College neighbors. And of course, the debate over the moronic drinking ‘holidays’ that caused so much uproar.

It’s no coincidence that our drop to #3 comes after a year of the most ridiculous, unsafe and shockingly bad drinking behavior that extends way beyond the college norm.

Perhaps this year we can practice some more responsible drinking and follow some easy steps:

• Instead of drinking a bottle of Vlad to our face, we could share some with our friends!
• Instead of shotgunning, bonging, or chugging beers, we could choose to sip on them slowly and enjoy the taste (do not buy Natty for this step)
• Instead of blacking the #$%@ out, we could opt to actually remember the small time we have here in college and not make absolute fools of ourselves.
• Instead of crate races, we could befriend someone with a Wii or Nintendo 64 and play Mario Kart!
• Instead of ‘power hours,’ we could, well not do them.
• Instead of pissing in public and on people’s property, we could not drink so much and wait to use a bathroom, you know like the rest of the human race.

Distraught alcoholics can take solace in the fact that Penn State didn’t go without a #1 ranking this year. Nittany Lions fans choose to “Pack the Stadiums” more than any other student body last year. Remember though, Penn State’s drinking culture dates back to the years before our parents were even legal to drink, so the next time we’re #1, it will be because we are Grade A partiers that can do so responsibly and with safety in mind, and not because we can mindlessly guzzle down blinding amounts of alcohol.

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