slope day

well, the Great White Hunter's lame-duck presidency is now in session. For those of you that don't know Hunter is trying to insert his dickliness, where it's not wanted. For information and to sign a petition allowing student government officers more slope day steering power see... www.saveslopeday.com .

Also, for you oldies out there, tell us youngins what Slope Day was like when it first started and also those not so youngins/not old yet, what happened around the time the drinking age changed and how have students by-passed NY regulations in the past?

Thanks,
Matt

Well, I'm certainly not an oldie by any chance, seeing as my first slope day was spring '97, only 4 years before yours....but even in the last 6 years, it's changed a bit. My freshman year was (I'm pretty sure), the first year they put up the fences. The previous year they had a ton of trouble with people sliding down the slope and breaking limbs. Anyway, There was no Slope Fest, and essentially everyone just went out there with giant plastic bottles filled with liquor and mixed drinks. My sophomore year they really started implementing the sober stuff, and it got more and more organized as time went on. I'm sure a lot of people here who graduated in the 70s, 80s, and 90s will have a lot bigger differences, which I'm excited to hear.

This thursday, members of the Student Assembly are trying to defund slope fest, anyone who wishes to save this institution should show up to Willard Strait's memorial room at 4:45

Good grief. Are today's youth such sheep that they have to have the university's blessing to have a good time? If the administration wants the slope, let them have it. Chinese students pulled off Tieneman Square, and you can't figure out someplace else to party? This sounds a lot like the difference between organized cheers and general noise at the hockey games......

Slope fest:

for me slope fest was a place to go, when I was so trashed that the angle of the slope made it difficult for me to stand and gravity carried me to west campus instead of the arts quad. In my drunkeness, I found the water hydrating, the band a bit hazy, and the large inflatable, bouncy things great to pass-out on. The purpose of Slope fest is, in my eyes, to make those few amongst us that don't drink be able to have a great time on Slope Day, without the over-exposure to alcohol consumption. So, to those that participated in slope fest sober, what did you think?? did you get drunk off the fun or were you driven to drink by boredom??

-Mill-AR

oh and to the oldies out there...I'm still interested in slope day back in the day...

It's been all down hill, if you'll pardon the expression, since they banned the Phi Psi 500.

Well, for one thing, 10+ years ago it was called Springfest, not Slope Day...

Yeah, if you've never heard it before, "Slope Day," well... let's say it just doesn't sound good.

Greg wrote:

Yeah, if you've never heard it before, "Slope Day," well... let's say it just doesn't sound good.

Well, I once had a friend at Harvard ask me if slope day was "asian appreciation day"....

I graduated in 1984 and I think we called it Slope Day. Who knows? There were a lot of huge parties on campus then, and I made a point of going to as many as I could. I only recall one slope day though -- Gary U.S. Bonds played.

I wouldn't have gotten my knickers in a twist over losing slope day. Every weekend had its parties, and the slope event was just one of them. Perhaps it's a good thing. If it weren't for all those parties, perhaps I wouldn't have chosen the F response in the survey on the top of the page.

That petition web site has some amusing quotables.

"We believe that any restrictions on the Slope should not be handed down from above and forced upon us, but rather be developed from the bottom up in keeping with another great Cornell tradition. Self-imposed barriers are just barriers, but externally opposed barriers without due process are unjust and cannot be accepted."

"We ask that the administration returns to the bargaining table before time is up and the situation worsens."

And my personal favorite, referring to Hunter's proposal:

"WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEMOCRATIC SPIRIT OF CORNELL? HE MADE THE PROPOSAL!!! It will need to include this framework! Students deserve a voice. Unilateral decisions are not acceptable."

I didn't know there needed to be a bargaining table. The administration has the final say here. Period. It grants the student assembly and student leaders a measure of influence in some matters, but it shouldn't allow a bunch of 18- to 21-year-olds posing as would-be political hacks make the serious policy decisions, especially ones that involve dealing with thousands of walking lawsuits-in-waiting, er, students hell-bent on breaking multiple laws in broad daylight and endangering themselves for the sake of a so-called tradition.

Sure, I had fun at a couple of slope days when I was an immature college kid who didn't know any better, but I wouldn't be at all sad to see this "tradition" vanish. This isn't a cultural event like Dragon Day. It's a boozefest, something that highlights the excess, foolishness, and disregard for sense and safety associated with college life. It's an embarrassment to an Ivy League school like Cornell, and a well-publicized tragedy waiting to happen. Phase it out over a few years, replace it with a concert festival or something.

Okay, I'm done ranting now. Fire away.

BEER good! FIRE bad....