… to life as we know it on many American college campuses, but at UC Santa Cruz the smoking of dope has become such a big deal that the school’s making official efforts to suppress it.
Or at least to suppress 4/20 – the annual campus pot festival, where thousands of people – many not connected to UCSC – make a bright golden haze on a meadow.
If you ask UD, this sort of ritual is less offensive than football fans getting shit-faced and trashing main street. But the whole alcohol thing – the fact that many universities are surrounded by hundreds of cheap bars, for instance – gets a rise out of no one, while people believe toking erodes the foundations of the republic.
Having said that, UD has no problem with UC Santa Cruz sending a letter to the parents of freshmen asking them to discourage their kids from taking part in 4/20. The event is a victim of its own success, drawing such crowds that the national media’s paying attention.
It’s like the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. The event has gotten so big and so silly that it draws routine MSM ridicule.
Eventually a similar letter will go out to literature department chairs asking them to discourage new faculty from attending.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:28AM
If only we could get the MLA to celebrate 4/20 with such zeal. It would instantly lighten the seriousness of it all and make some of those panels tolerable. Suddenly, Boethius is INTERESTING…
April 7th, 2009 at 10:17AM
I wholeheartedly agree with Jeff. I imagine a group of academics sitting in a circle saying "Have you ever looked at our citation format – I mean, like, *really* looked at it?"
April 8th, 2009 at 12:11AM
[…] 8, 2009 Here is a George Washington University Professor of English talking about Hippie U. Despite the fact that I am not one to partake in the 4-20 festivities (or […]