Nick HooverIt’s been over a decade since the three-day long riots broke out during the April, 1990 Poly Royal celebration where over 120 people were arrested. Any object within reach was hurled at police officers, including small explosives.
What’s changed in these 15 years? Is the quiet town of San Luis Obispo remaining just that: quiet?
Not according to President Baker, who sent out an e-mail address last week to the students pleading for them to “conduct themselves in ways that will not jeopardize their health and well-being and will help ensure that our neighborhoods are places where all residents, students and non-students, can feel respected, comfortable and safe.”
Baker’s e-mail comes as no surprise. The apartment-laden streets near Cal Poly seem to have no shortage of forgotten red plastic cups left strewn in the aftermath of yet another party.
Kappa Chi member Dan Terzian was quoted in the Mustang Daily earlier this week as saying “We have never seen anything like this on our grounds,” in reference to pamphlets being distributed to Cal Poly dormitory residents that cited statistics accusing greek men of being more likely to commit several types of rape.
I don’t have a solution to the age-old problem of alcohol and the presence of the opposite sex. I do, however, believe that it’s time to own up to what is and what is not.
“Most of us live a very full life with our friends and family by being involved with school, work, hobbies and religion” AGB senior Crystal Clifford said. Clifford claims that partying is a release from a difficult college career.
Read any Habitat for Humanity story, or an account of what it’s like to volunteer with the Red Cross. You’re likely to see a few sentences about the satisfaction of knowing that someone made a difference.