College bears a bigger resemblance to elementary school than one would think on the surface. There are of course many naps and snacks on a day-to-day basis, but there is also one similar potential consequence that teachers and administrators have held over our heads since we were young.

There was always that one kid who took things too far. The kid would always talk, run around, draw on things and cause other mischief while the teacher was talking. Inevitably the teacher would get overwhelmed and the threat would come.

“Kid, if you don’t stop that, the whole class is missing recess.”

A hush would fall over the room and the troublemaker, stirring, would contemplate the next move. And then it happened. The troublemaker did it again. The whole class would stay in, and all because of the behavior of one student.

If you can’t see where this metaphor is going, here’s the connection: Unofficial is our recess at the University. Don’t be dumb and ruin it for everyone else with poor decisions.

Although not an organized event, officials don’t crack down on the holiday nearly as hard as they potentially could. That’s because we’re adults, and we should be making responsible choices.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have a little fun, it just means that we need to be more mature than the grade-school troublemaker who didn’t think about how their choices would affect the rest of the class.

Like anything in life, this fun can be taken a little too far, causing consequences unintended but devastating. If students continue to push the limits of responsible partying on Unofficial, further restrictions will likely continue until the holiday hardly exists at all.

People have died as a result of Unofficial, and many other have been hospitalized. Hundreds have gotten tickets, dozens arrested. These instances were all ultimately the result of bad choices. 

Unofficial is a time-honored tradition at our school, but one person’s bad choice could not only ruin their lives, but affect the lives of many others.

While these issues have thus far had a relatively low impact on the holiday as a whole, let’s, as a campus, not cross the line between what is fun and what is right.