So Her Campus Brandeis has been talking about Pachanga a lot over the past two semesters and once again I will bring up the topic, only this time there is no speculation. After the events that happened during the last Pachanga (not sure, check it out here) there was hearsay about whether or not Brandeis would have another one. Well the results are in and they’re not positive for the Pachanga-loving. Brandeis has postponed Pachanga until 2012.
How do the students feel about the cancellation of Pachanga? Some students are upset, saying that last year’s Pachanga was no different than other years and that we are responsible enough to monitor our own alcohol consumption. Other students could care less; why would they want to go to an event that costs 10 dollars and isn’t even that fun?
If the student who went to last semester’s event were responsible for their actions and alcohol, then why did so many students get BEM-Co’d? One student’s altercation with a police officer may not reflect his moral code, but what it does say is his ability to control his alcohol consumption. We go to Brandeis, we are smart people and we should be able to do the math. Ten, fifteen and even twenty shots are not safe for any individual. Some students I have spoken with intentionally don’t eat very much before a night of drinking to ensure their “blackout” status.
It is situations like this that end up with a student with their head in a toilet, or worse, in the back of an ambulance. I know that all students who went through orientation had that meeting with Dawn Skop about how shots are in a solo cup and how many shots one person can handle. We all know the facts about drinking, so why don’t we follow them during Pachanga?
Last Pachanga I did not attend, but while walking back to my quad I came across two boys: one inebriated and the other struggling to hold drunk boy up. While I helped these two boys back to their room (I still have no idea their names), the one boy drunkenly told me that he had taken 17 shots. Seventeen shots and he couldn’t walk on his own. Another fact he shared with me was that he didn’t even make it to the dance. This boy had just spent ten dollars on a ticket, and who knows how much on alcohol, just to be walked back to bed before the event even began. What was the point of the evening? Did he even remember the night? The unfortunate thing is that this story is one of many from that night.
With college parties there will always be alcohol, but there are other events on campus (DJ Battle, Super Mash Bros) that do not have such extreme outcomes. So, why is Pachanga so bad? What can we do to solve the issue? It is well known that Brandeis doesn’t have many parties, so maybe we should have more Pachanga-like events in order to make Pachanga less of a big deal. The point of the night is to have a good time dancing, but it is one of very few events on campus therefore students go all out for it. If we had say two or three events on campus each semester that were like Pachanga students would be less likely to go crazy every time.
The debate here isn’t whether or not Pachanga should have been cancelled because in the end it is out of our control. The decision has been made. The only thing that we can do is change what we do in the future. During a night of drinking take a step back and think “How many shots will allow me to enjoy the night without ending up sick?” In the end this article isn’t about whether or not Pachanga should have been cancelled, rather I want you to think: What is the point of spending ten dollars on a night you will not remember?