In three days, I will be moving in to my dorm room at CSU Chico for the first time. I’m actually going to be living with one of my best friends in an off-campus dorm, but the basic idea is still the same – collective recreation rooms, cafeteria food, and living ‘round the clock with friends.

 

To be honest, I’m more excited than nervous. Chino is only about two and a half hours away, and my boyfriend, friends, and parents have promised both to visit often, and to be around when I come home on weekends. Besides that, I’m really going to love my major, Theatre Arts, especially if I eventually get to transfer to UCLA to double-major or minor in film and television. My schedule so far isn’t too demanding, but sounds like a lot of fun, and I really can’t wait to begin life as a college student.

 

That said, there seem to be a few fundamental problems with college life that have remained a part of university living for a very long time, and those are the few things that make me nervous.

Chico, for one, is known primarily as a “party school.” The initial reaction when I tell people where I’m going to school is not asking what my major is going to be; it’s informing me, as I already know, that Chico is a party school. It does not occur to these people that I might be going there for purely academic reasons, and not so I can get my drink on at a party.

 

It has been implied before on these blogs that, as a teenager, of course I would want to rebel, but I have consistently found that I have no real desire to do so. I like playing by rules I know are fair and reasonable – I don’t feel any need to try something that, while fun for a night, can cause serious damage that I may not even be able to see. It’s an unpopular decision among friends and acquaintances – I’m one of only two or three people I know who feel the same as I do. I don’t want to go to wild parties and drink or smoke illegal substances. I don’t like pounding music and leering guys, or the lifestyle associated with the typical partying college student.

 

That having been said, I think it’s a problem that universities now have a duty to address. For older students (those of drinking age) it isn’t such a problem, but I don’t imagine that having a bunch of kids constantly having parties and drinking illegally looks good for a school. Administrators aren’t blind; they must know what’s going on. Why are these things overlooked? I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to say, either; of course I know that no one could crack down on all t he parties, and that many people (like me) don’t do that sort of thing. But what about the people who do? It seems unfair to me that they can do illegal things simply because it is expected of them, without facing consequences, either physical or legal.

 

I imagine that these may not be the concerns of your average college freshmen; I also imagine that these are probably the opposite of concerns many college students have. But I’m tired of being outcast in this regard simply because people know they won’t get caught for doing what they know is wrong. Is it so ingrained into college living that it can’t be changed?

 

As it turns out, having “fun” CAN kill you.