So much more than a party school

Some students, faculty and administration have become increasingly indignant about IU's party school reputation. This frustration has been reinforced lately because of certain presences on campus. (Namely, Playboy magazine and a company filming a DVD reminiscent of products marketed to the lonely single males who watch late night TV.) The movie filming took place during the weekend at local bars downtown, such as The Jungle Room, Kilroy's on Kirkwood and Bluebird Nightclub.\nMany argue Playboy's "Girls of the Top Ten Party School" spread and "The Top 10 Party Schools" DVD will have a negative effect on IU's reputation by perpetuating pre-existing stereotypes about IU. \nIU has had a reputation as a wild party school for years. This was reaffirmed by The Princeton Review in 2002 when IU was named the No. 1 party school in the country. Since then, IU has moved up and down the top ten lists along with other big state schools such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Arizona State University. \nThe rational question to ask here would be: What difference does a list make? The college experience is what a student makes it to be. Students party and drink at every college in the country, especially big state schools. Playboy even did a "Girls of the Ivy League" spread. Being on some obscure top 10 party school list doesn't actually mean anything to anyone except for the high school slackers who have no other motivation in life but to seek out the best places to party. \nIt's not like employers look up these lists and stick them to their office walls with the heading "Don't hire people from these 'party' schools." No matter how many times IU makes a party school list, it's still ranked on several academic lists outlining IU's brain power. \nAccording to U.S. News and World Report in 2004, the Kelley School of Business was ranked No. 11 in the country and No. 6 among public schools. The College of Arts and Sciences has eight programs of study ranked in the top 10 in the nation. The School of Music is in the top three in the country, the School of Optometry is among the top three and the School of Journalism is among the top five. And the school of Public and Environmental Affairs is third in the nation for graduate programs.\nConsidering there are more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the country, these are pretty impressive numbers. In any reasonable person's mind, statistics like these mean a lot more than some arbitrarily made-up party school list. \nYes, IUB students have auditioned to be in the Playboy photo shoots. \nYes, a number of IU students will probably end up with a drunken table dancing solo on the DVD filmed downtown.\nBut in the end, everyone knows IU is defined by so much more than the weekend activities of a few students and random party school lists.