<p>Not everybody parties – far from it. There is definitely a subculture for everything you want to do on the weekends.</p>
<p>but who parties? the student leaders, who are disproportionately, partiers. partiers who have somehow come to dominate the political structures of many cultural organisations on Grounds. the metric of a student leader does not directly examine community-building, or collaboration, or anything of the sort, but by how many big, visible events a student leader can throw.</p>
<p>if you lead an org throws six big events a year, five of which may be dominated by people who arrive there intoxicated, your org is considered to be a huge freaking success. never mind if you alienate large swathes of people who fall under your cultural umbrella but do not really consider the type of weekend activities you plan fulfilling. but hurrah you get invited to the lawn. </p>
<p>the partiers join the secret societies; the non-partiers do not.</p>
<p>btw, I am not talking about the UPC or stuff like that. I don’t know what goes on at the very top – maybe there’s a different culture there.</p>
<p>my axe is to grind is that I am tired of trying to work on community-based multicultural events where the leaders that should be the most enthused are your biggest opponents and the most cynical.</p>
<p>does this happen at other schools? I mean I love UVA – at many other schools, many of these orgs would not even exist. but…</p>
<p>Depends on how you look at a school. Every school is going to have partiers. Even Harvard if you can believe that. UVA has great sports and is based alot around the greek life (greek life=party).</p>
<p>French, because you’re a current student, I’m not sure you’ll find answers here. Most of the students here are high schoolers who don’t know much about the clubs and orgs that you wrote about above.</p>
<p>such is the sad and pathetic state of my dissent, Dean J…</p>
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<p>UVA has great sports, yes. And Greek life is fairly /prominent/. Too prominent, I say, when their members start planning out events and controlling affairs in cultural organisations. Too prominent, when they consider themselves too important and too exclusive that they have no process by which the community may be consulted, or where genuine feedback can be given, or even to be approached for collaboration, because for them, their taste is the community’s taste.</p>
<p>And thus most co-sponsorship events consist of events where two or more organisations superficially put their name on an event that is in bulk the work and ideas of one organisation. Why do they do this? Well, co-sponsorship funds, which is supposed to encourage collaboration, results in additional money for both organisations… mind you, I like the scheme. I am depending on co-sponsorship funds to fund my rather ambitious projects for this year. The scheme is just so heavily abused.</p>
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<p>I used to have nothing against partiers. I mean, I party, sometimes. I’ve done my share, partially because some of these events sounded cooler than they were. You could take some of the most seemingly exotic cultural organisations on Grounds, but the parties they throw are essentially nothing more than /just another/ Greek-style college party.</p>
<p>Why don’t you express your concerns to Student Council. You seem to think that everyone involved in student leadership is the problem, but that can’t be the case.</p>
<p>well, there are those who are primarily responsible for this state of affairs
those who tell me, despite their titles and their disillusionment, they are “powerless” to change anything and sit idly by
those who are genuinely concerned but are already involved in all sorts of affairs (not even academic) and are too busy to offer assistance </p>
<p>and silent dissenters I suppose, but we are not organised and we have little influence.</p>
<p>I am not merely ranting. with luck, this year we’ll succeed at introducing a measure of openness and community feedback among the orgs I am especially thinking about. but I had to vent somewhere.</p>
<p>I’m sure a lot of students go to UVA just because of its reputation as a party school. What I’m trying to say though is to look apon UVA as what YOU think it is. UVA is known as a party school for sure though and greek life is very prominent there (from what I’ve heard)</p>
<p>Seriously? This is not the place for this type of rant. You need to go see the Dean on Call or something if you’re this visibly upset you feel the need to post on a board meant to be informing to high schoolers.</p>
<p>It is unfair to slam UVa and student leaders like this, especially since many of us work our butts off and sometimes people sharing our same interests overlap into our social lives. Unfair, un-needed, and most of all, cruel.
I hope the mods take this down, ASAP.</p>
<p>I love UVA. I already know what it is, etched in my heart forever. That’s why I talk about improving it and not about transferring, you see? </p>
<p>it was a stark realisation to me however, that though you can have a somewhat vibrant social life without the Greek-style partying at UVA, the Greek-style students** have a disproportionate amount of influence on cultural organisations here. Normally we leave people to do their thing or w/e, but in this case, these sort of “leaders” actually stand in the way of getting meaningful **** done. </p>
<p>Hence my dissent.</p>
<p>** (note I said style – some Greek orgs are quite different from their neighbours on Rugby; conversely there are tons of “leaders” who are influenced by their culture without being part of a Greek org themselves.) </p>
<p>And ranting on here like this isn’t going to do anything. At all. And frankly a) I knew these so-called “greek-leaders” and they usually did a fantastic job because they could juggle things so well and b) we have a few Greek members on here, that once again, you’re being cruel to.</p>
<p>So, again, find another outlet to express your views in. This isn’t the place!</p>
<p>I’ve actually tried to be kind as possible by NOT identifying the particular orgs I have seen these issues in. But perhaps you’ve never been one to be dissatisfied or alienated by the gap between an organisation’s self-described goals and its actual activities.</p>
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<p>not my choice of terms – there are unfortunately some naive people here who like to use the term “Greek” to describe a certain culture, common and associated with Greek orgs, but in fact transcending them. </p>
<p>Unfortunately to be understood I have to use the same convention. Note I didn’t use the word “Greek” in my opening post, because in fact Greekness was what I was /not/ thinking of.</p>
<p>Damn, this is getting heated up in here. When I go to UVA I definitly am not joining a Frat. I’m going to be a hazel-junior and join brown college. I’m not into the party scene imensily but brown college fits me.</p>
<p>If I’m a flamer, I am not sure what you would call the guys at the Dec. Carpet bombers?</p>
<p>I have tried to phrase my sentiments (which are not solely mine) in the most respectful way possible. Please note that I have constantly tried to avoid generalising. Out of the various student leaders (many who bear in mind I have been friends with since first year) who agree with me or too have their disillusions or dissatisfactions, I do not know one person willing to stand up to the culture.</p>
<p>“oh kiddo I feel the SAME exact way. I think this will be my last year with ___
b/c ive become slightly disillusioned with it.”</p>
<p>now this girl is in a high-ranking position in a fairly large and influential organisation. She’s one of my closest friends – but she chooses to give up rather than fight. Perhaps I should not blame people like her – the party culture has sapped all their energy whereas for me it only has made me more upset.</p>
<p>and that my friends, is the real reason why UVA is a party school. because people do nothing to oppose the domination of the party scene even in student orgs that should not be pre-occupied with partying.</p>
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<p>where do you get the impression that I do not like UVA??</p>
<p>Because you seem so disappointed in your fellow students. It’s pretty obvious that the school has not lived up to your expectations. UVa has a personality that doesn’t seem to mesh with yours. I guess opposites don’t always attract. Rather than criticize the student leaders, why not become one and make your case for the changes you seek?</p>
<p>Far from it. You do majorly misread me sir!</p>
<p>I didn’t even know there would be such vibrant CIOs at UVA when I came here. So now I suppose I am spoilt – I am not content with the status quo and want them to be better. however, in a manner that annoys me, many leaders are in fact content with the status quo…</p>
<p>but had I gone to my in-state school most of these orgs would not exist. Probably not even at comparable schools like UNC.</p>
<p>I suppose I do not blame you for the misunderstanding. I can’t give you too much context. Let me reassure you that I am not sitting idly by. =)</p>
<p>When I think of “party school”, UVA is one of the LAST schools that come to mind. Granted, it’s not as straight-laced as say BYU or Liberty, but seriously??? Party school??? Obviously you’ve never visited the University of Florida, UT, the University of Georgia, etc., etc. Elite top 25 schools rarely, if ever, have the all out wild environments that are present at some other schools; the students could not achieve the stats they have or accomplish the goals they’ve set for themselves if they were partying every night. Yes, UVA students do enjoy kicking back on weekends and occasionally blowing off steam; however, to label it, with it’s academic reputation, a “party school” is absolutely absurd IMO.</p>