Though we as seniors are all angry about the nixing of Fishbowl, especially within the canon of removed privileges we have endured throughout our ConnColl tenure (last year of kegs in common rooms was spring 2009, three months before we got here, to name one of many), it is important to view Fishbowl’s cancellation with a balanced perspective. 99% of seniors, year in and year out, have a validating and incredible experience on Fishbowl. 99% of us symbolically “tak(e) control of a campus” that has been only somewhat our own for the past four years.
So what about the fact that last year a girl reached for a policeman’s gun during Fishbowl? What about the girl sitting in her chair in cro throwing up all over herself? What about the fact that Conn was mere inches away from a serious lawsuit due to the numerous counts of abuse that occurred during the Fishbowl dance? You may argue that these things go on at every Cro dance, but the reality is that Fishbowl last year was much, much worse. What senior or alum is going to come forward AGAINST the experience of Fishbowl? Those students are silenced by the awesomeness of the experience, for better or for worse.
At this point allow me to be clear. Despite the egregiousness of these actions, I am not necessarily arguing that the administration was given good and fair reason to eliminate Fishbowl completely. My issue lies in the way the administration has elected to handle the situation thus far, and how Fishbowl changed last year. A couple of things:
1. The administration has absolutely no problem with the naked run aspect. The lock-in drinking was the element that they aimed to eliminate.
2. Dean Denard, who spearheaded this decision and whose name accompanied the email to seniors, chose to have the informing email sent out in a week when she was out of town, albeit representing a great recruiting program in Chicago. This will obviously keep her from attending what should be a very exciting SGA meeting tonight.
3. No students were involved in the decision to remove Fishbowl. The senior class council and SGA were presented with the “reality” that there would no longer be Fishbowl. There was no “consultation” or “discussion”. The senior class council was told to think of a replacement idea. For this reason, scapegoating any student leaders, including SGA President Taylor Gould, is ignorant.
4. Last year was the first time that seniors were made to use drink tickets in Fishbowl. Before last year, the event was all-you-can-drink. This is an especially revealing fact. If you are a collegiate senior, the reality is that, unless Fishbowl is your first night drinking, three drinks on three tickets is not going to provide the kind of end-all-be-all blow-up event that many seniors believe they have earned. Introducing the drink tickets effectively pushed the drinking out of cro and behind closed doors, so that students were forced to pregame Fishbowl, aggressively. Students showed up wasted, blacked out, and the school was serving them alcohol and playing dance music. This is another fact that the school cited as a reason they wanted to cancel Fishbowl. Before last year, students would show up to the event relatively sober, drink and get drunk slowly with their classmates on school-provided booze, dance, and eventually get naked and go for the run. Last year, hammered students showed up to fishbowl already near-nude, drank maybe one or two drinks, shed their final layers, and ran.
The problem here lies only partially with the students: The college’s patronization of 22-year-olds by limiting them to a “healthy” three-drink maximum had the opposite effect. Students pregamed harder than they ever had before, knowing that nudity would be the eventual goal of the night. The college wrote its own deathwish with those bracelets, and the consequences speak for themselves.
Moving forwards, the school is committed to making the event that replaces Fishbowl absolutely epic. They are throwing money at the idea, and want to create a new tradition. Before we let them do this, however, a few conversations need to happen. The college needs to enumerate how and why Fishbowl is no more, and what parts of Fishbowl they had problems with. They need to engage in a conversation with students about how to make Fishbowl work, and if the consensus is that it can’t work, to talk to students about why and to address those issues.
But do your part as students and alumna(e) as well. Know the facts, and don’t turn to anger immediately. Try to understand where everyone is coming from, and why things are going the way they are. Please do not fall victim to the trap of attributing circumstantial issues to individual dispositions. The people involved in this situation are people, and the administration is composed of people. They don’t hate fun. I promise.
In closing I encourage as many of you as possible to attend SGA tonight, and to listen to what is said, formulate your own opinions, and organize yourselves accordingly. If the consensus is that fishbowl can be brought back, let’s bring it back, and do it right. No more drink tickets. Just a class of awesome individuals coming together for one of the best traditions this college has to offer.
