Meghan Harmening | Opinion Co-Editor

Being underage on a campus of less than one thousand students kind of sucks sometimes. For those of us who simply don’t want to drive home every single weekend, it can be a challenge to find fun things to do on the weekends. As much as I love doing homework, I don’t want to work on finance problems or a research project about investments at midnight on a Saturday. But what other choices do I have?

Yes, I could watch a movie. In fact, that’s what I did this past weekend. I watched several movies with one of my best friends and we had a fantastic time (my new favorite movie is Olympus Has Fallen). But that’s beside the point. There are only so many good movies to watch, and I simply don’t want to watch a handful of movies every single weekend. Isn’t there something else that I could do?

I suppose I could go to Malarky’s sober. That would be fun – people grinding, music pumping, and alcohol sloshing. I take that back, that doesn’t sound fun to me. For some, maybe. But I propose a change.

It could be a three part change. First, willingness. For those of us who are underage and can’t drink, or for those of us who simply don’t care to consume any alcohol, we must be willing to seek out new opportunities for weekend fun. This might mean we have to dig down deep into our creativity banks and pull out a few new ideas. But we can do that. Second, camaraderie. Let us build a team of people across all walks of life, all disciplines, all dorms, all friend groups. Let us join together and be creative. Let us have the willingness to build a group that wants to do a variety of things on the weekends that don’t include alcohol and going to Malarky’s. Third, recruiting. A few people will have a hard time creating a major change on campus, so let’s get together and do it.

I think we can do this. We have two major resources on campus: SAB and Weekend Programming. If we can pair up with either of them and create fun weekend programming – that doesn’t necessarily have to include bringing talent to campus – we could have some great weekends. Things such as Pizza & Poker night, Board Game night, Movie night, and a volleyball tournament are all things that are inexpensive but can include a variety of different people. It just takes simple ideas to bring those of us who can’t drink out of their rooms on the weekends. So let’s collaborate. Let’s create a think tank that allows everyone on this campus to feel as if they can be a part of something more than a drunk fest on the weekend.

Graphic by Grace Bodey