kickin' new flavor in ya ear

ST. BONAVENTURE (May 10) - To describe Spring Weekend in five words, Lauryn Shea Klingler, a junior political science major, said, “drunken college students causing scenes.” 

        Danny Bush, a sophomore journalism and mass communication major, has a different view. He does not drink. Bush described Spring Weekend as “ unreasonable, socially acceptable, stage-one alcoholism.”

     Spring Weekend represents two visions of Bonaventure students: the happy, go-lucky drunks and the sensible sober ones. 

       Spring Weekend is a four-day event held on the last weekend of April every year when students play softball, listen to live music, enjoy the beautiful weather and spend time with friends before the year comes to an end.

     “For only one weekend the school accepts drinking as much as students want out in the open, but you can’t do that any other weekend, which is hypocrisy. But I feel it is safer than having students drink in secrecy in their rooms. The level of alcohol consumption is absolutely irresponsible,” said Bush.

       Jessica Rehac, a sophomore education major, pays close attention to her friends to make sure no one gets hurt or sick.

    “Most of the people I know know their limits and know how to keep themselves from getting hurt during this fun weekend,” said Rehac.

       Kyle Zappia, a junior journalism and mass communication major, has worries about Spring Weekend- the softball games. There are 64 games played throughout the weekend with roughly 20 people on each team. That is 1300 of the 1900 undergraduates that take part in this activity at Bonaventure.

         “I‘m concerned with people who are overly intoxicated at the softball games. While playing defense I’ve seen some people take balls to the head because of their slow reaction time, and I’m always scared that a drunk batter will let go of the bat and hit someone with it,” said Zappia.

     Students said that the Bonaventure community sees Spring Weekend as good fun. But for some people it can be much worse. 

    Some students such as Sinead Coleman, a junior biology major, are disappointed that binge drinking coincides with Spring Weekend.

      “It kind of stinks that in order for the whole school to get outside and do something it involves drinking. At least it pushes people outside to enjoy our lovely, beautiful campus,” said Coleman.

         Samuel Wilson, a junior journalism and mass communication major, drank too much his freshman year during Spring Weekend, but he has learned from that.

   “I know I handled my second Spring Weekend much better than my first. I felt like a kid at a candy shop as a wee freshman. I enjoyed myself and still made it through all the festivities last year,” said Wilson.

          Coleman said that there’s a unity at Bonaventure. Students actually care about one another.

“I compare our Spring Weekend to University of Connecticut’s in which hundreds of people get arrested, there are fights and even a murder last year. Every Spring Weekend I have been to at Bonaventure has been safe and fun. Everyone is too busy enjoying the rare, warmer weather to be negative,” said Coleman.

    A junior accounting major, Lauren Cassidy, agreed that spring weekend holds some kind of unity with everyone.

       “I do think everyone looks out for each other. I think it might be due to the ‘team’ aspect the softball games bring to Spring Weekend,” said Cassidy.

    “I think people do look out for one another. No one wants problems to happen at an event that’s fun, but students shouldn’t rely on others to look out for them. It you take care of yourself, then most likely no problems will occur,” says Zappia.       

      Although Spring Weekend can be dangerous, students agreed that it’s the most exciting weekend all year. And every student has a different reason as to why.

        “It’s fun to be on a softball team with all of my friends and party right before finals. I think it’s a great thing to have at the end of the semester as a way of wrapping up the year and starting off summer with a fun experience,” said Klingler.