Kelli Kroepel | Opinion Co-Editor

As many of you have probably heard, the University of Iowa has recently been named the number one party school in the nation by The Princeton Review. Each year The Princeton Review puts out a list of the top “party colleges” in the nation. This isn’t the first time the University of Iowa has made the top ten, and it probably won’t be the last. Despite what many people believe, I don’t think it’s something the university should necessarily be ashamed of; however, I don’t think students should be overdoing it to try and live up to their school’s new title.

Last weekend, there was a 22-year-old, University of Iowa student named Samantha Goudie that tried to run onto the field during the Northern Illinois-Iowa game. She was then immediately arrested by the campus police and given a breathalyzer test; she blew a dangerous 0.341 blood alcohol content (BAC) level. During that day she was tweeting off and on about how she went to jail and that she was going to get her BAC level tattooed on her body. What I don’t understand is that with her BAC level being so high, she could’ve had severe alcohol poisoning, but yet she seemed perfectly coherent over Twitter. One of her most notorious tweets of the day under her Twitter handle @Vodka_Samm was “just went to jail #yolo”. As many of you people know, the term “YOLO” stands for You Only Live Once. I mean, sure, you do technically only live once, and you should enjoy it, but I don’t think that getting so drunk that your body could possibly slip into a coma is a worthy way to live your life.

Personally, I don’t understand what the big deal is over the Samantha Goudie incident and why she’s receiving national attention. This isn’t the first time someone has gotten that drunk and put ridiculous statements on the Internet. She is twenty-two years old, and it was the first game of the season. She just got a little too excited, right? My only problem when I was reading her tweets days after the incident was that she didn’t seem the least bit grateful that she was alive. I mean, her BAC level was four times the legal limit. Goudie’s case should perhaps be a wake-up call for University of Iowa students that are trying to live up to number one party school title. While many students are proud of this title, it isn’t worth getting so intoxicated that you’re on the edge of death.

I can see, however, where the university would at least be a little concerned that their students might get out of hand this year. My thoughts are that college students are going to party regardless of the numerous rules you create to prevent it, especially when it has over 30,000 enrolled students. The city has also already decreased the amount of binge drinking by not allowing underage persons in the bar past 10:00 p.m. I don’t think people should let this list or Goudie’s case detract from the positive elements of the university. The university, as well as the city should consider the positives. Other than being named the number one party school, the Princeton Review also recognized that the University of Iowa is more affordable than other schools in the big ten and that their student body is quite studious. As long as students remain smart about their actions, I don’t see anything wrong with the University of Iowa being the number one party school in the nation.

Graphic by Aaron Burns