Scientists in Europe have determined that Antwerp (Belgium) is the cornerstone of the ecstasy trade in Europe. They reached such conclusion by analyzing the water in the drainage. With the amount of drugs that must have been flushed down around the Wesleyan campus, the devices used by the scientists might have jumped into the stratosphere.
One has to wonder why it took so long for the “drugstores” to be raided at the school. It’d take an amazingly naïve person to believe that the trade at the school started a few days ago!
Sooner or later, we might have a ranking by PR or USNews in a new category, namely Stoner Colleges. Skidmore, Eckerd, Evergreen State, and University of Colorado – Boulder are well-prepared for inclusion!
Didn’t mean to minimize the pain of the parents of the arrested students. I think all of these parents and kids are probably devastated. I agree that when you see parents who look like normal, responsible, caring people it’s hard not to think “There but for the grace of God go I.” I don’t expect to ever be in their position, but then again I bet they never expected to be in their current position either.
I much prefer " stoner" colleges, to those dominated by alcohol. Unless they have a patriarchal administration that even dictates lenght of skirts, schools are one or the other.
I’m sure they didn’t. Quite a few parents got awful phone calls this week. I read that only one student is still in the hospital. I hope that they all recover completely.
I must say that in similar cases across the country, students have been afraid to get help, so at least we can hope in this case, help came in time.
The rest can be sorted, but no chance of that if you are dead.
I keep worrying every time someone posts to one of these threads that it will be bad news and one of the students will have died… hoping hard for that last student that this turns out okay.
@sax: that was a very well written post. That’s why my cage feels rattled when I read these threads, because I know that despite: 1. trying my hardest to raise my kids well & making my expectations clear; 2. their being bright, hard working students; and 3. sending them all these articles as cautionary tales, they are still young & capable of making stupid decisions. I also recognize that developmentally, guys their age are hard-wired to take risks. That’s why I earlier stated that I can’t bash wesleyan for this because it could happen at just about any college, save for some conservative Christian colleges that may be strictly administered. And it could happen to just about any kid. Thinking otherwise is naive. That’s why my heart goes out to both the parents of the boys who may have dealt these drugs and the parents of the 11 kids who overdosed. All these kids made very stupid decisions. Their parents, like me, may have–as sax wrote-- talked to them until they were blue in the face about the consequences of drugs.
I also think there is a lot of overlap between wesleyan and brown applicants. Both my kids applied to both schools, one a STEM major (who’s now a senior at brown), the other English (a freshman at tufts). It’s the only LAC that stayed on their lists. Of the LACs, it’s probably among the best for science bc of its NIH funding & it offers a 5th yr masters in science for free. In our town, most kids applying to yale & harvard also apply to wesleyan.
“Wesleyan will see a drop in applications this year and more likely a higher drop in yield (students deciding to attend), last year they admitted about 24%, I suspect their rankings will fall and admittance will increase to over 25% of applicants.” (Post 106)
Based on this incident???
There have been high profile (i.e. a lot of media attention) incidents of various types at Vanderbilt, Harvard, Hobart & William Smith, Hamilton, UNC, and the list goes on and on. Do these incidents significantly affect admissions? I sincerely doubt it.
I really feel sorry for the parents. I feel for the kids who ODd too. For the 4 people who were arrested? Assuming that they are guilty? I don’t feel all that sorry for them. They are drug dealers. Drug dealers are bad people, IMO. YMMV.
And, I’m really not all that sorry that someone who was dealing drugs has probably lost the chance to go to med school. Would you really trust this guy with a prescription pad? (Again, assuming he’s guilty.)
Sadly, we have something they don’t have in the Netherlands: it’s called The Bill of Rights. The raids that took place over the weekend were the result of search and seizure orders issued by a court - as required by the Fourth Amendment.
Don’t mind Englishman (“Wesleyan will see a drop in applications this year and more likely a higher drop in yield (students deciding to attend), last year they admitted about 24%, I suspect their rankings will fall and admittance will increase to over 25% of applicants.” (Post 106)).
He has an axe to grind regarding Wesleyan and all of his comments regarding the school are similar and negative in nature.
I don’t doubt it. This is a large number of students at a small selective school, and has been highly publicized. Our local paper in a flyover state had an article on it. I may have said this before, but admissions must be having a terrible time now trying to calculate yield for this year.
I don’t know of another LAC that has had 10 students hospitalized for a bad dose of a designer drug, with some airlifted. And honestly, Wes has a reputation for being edgy to start with. If parents were nervous at all, I suspect this will cause many of them to pull back.
I don’t know if this would affect me sending a kid there or not. When we were on a junior NE college tour and deciding what Connecticut LACs to visit we considered Wes, Conn and Trinity. Conn won mainly because it has no no greek life. Hobart WS was considered at one point and I admit the gang rape there was one reason, among several, that we didn’t visit.
USC had some murders near campus a while back. I don’t think those had any effect on applications and acceptances, but I may be wrong. It is concerning when a large # of kids are airlifted for ODs on a small campus, so that might be different.
@mom60 I agree with much of what @sax says. But I think one thing missing from that post, and one thing that can make a difference, is when high schools and colleges specifically train kids on intervention. A drunk student attempts to drive 5 classmates home from a party. Maybe one actually will speak up and say “we need to take a cab. We’ll pick up the car tomorrow.”
There is a lot that we practice in life. We can practice helping others to make better decisions–or stop making bad decisions–so maybe the next Vanderbilt football player won’t just roll over and go back to sleep while a woman is being assaulted in his dorm room.
Young adults who I know are actually really great with the message of not drinking and driving. They are the ones telling their parents and grandparents to use Uber. My youthful coworkers never drive when they go out and I overhear college kids talking that way as well.