The student leaders of an effort to debunk the party school image at the University of Colorado at Boulder believe questionable social surveys on campus are harmful to both incoming freshmen and outgoing graduates in the job market.
And, no, they don't fit the antisocial stereotype some might expect.
Juniors Chris Deardorff and Jeremy Durham lead a group called "Debunking the Myth -- Students for a More Valuable Degree," established after CU-Boulder was ranked the top party school by a publisher of college guidebooks. The ranking was based on an online survey of less than 1 percent of the student population.
Durham and Deardorff said they aren't the antisocial bookworms that their campaign might suggest. "The point of this is that the survey is simply bad math," Durham said. "This has more to do with mathematics than with morals."
Adds Deardorff, "I'm good friends with a lot of people who party and I don't think any less of them because they are partyers. I can see how it might appear that we have a conservative agenda, but really, all we're trying to do is create an awareness that the party ranking is not statistically valid."
Getting people to think more, not just joke about, the issue is another one of the group's goals.
"The group's mission is to make people think about this issue," Deardorff said. "If people will take one minute out of their day and just examine this issue with respect to their own lives, then I'd say the group is achieving its goal."
But isn't partying a part of the college experience?
"Not for all students, and certainly not for all students at CU," Durham said. "If people want to make partying part of their experience here at CU, fine by me," Deardorff said. "I have no problem with that. However, I just want people to know that they don't have to party to feel like they belong at this university."
Deardorff believes the social repercussions of the party label are as harmful as the inaccurate stigma that could follow graduates into the job market. "I think the worst aspect of CU's party label is that people may feel they need to wear this label to fit in," he said. "I think this is the case for a lot of freshmen trying to find their place at CU. They want to make friends and get to know people and are misled into believing that they must adopt the party lifestyle because it is the so-called 'social norm.' "
Durham said the ranking puts a burden on incoming students to party, "especially those who don't know what we are about, or don't give it the time to learn what we are about," he said.
The student group aims to make students realize how the survey and ranking could be harmful after graduation, too. "It will tarnish the reputation of the university for students who try to get jobs in the next few years," Durham said, adding that a friend has been asked about the ranking during several job interviews.
"I think that being the number one party school creates a negative image, and such an image has the potential to really tarnish the value of an education from CU-Boulder," Deardorff said.
Both students want people to know that CU-Boulder has a lot more to offer. "We don't want people to lose sight that CU is also a world-class academic institution," Durham said.
The group's "Debunking the Myth" print advertisement campaign has appeared in the Colorado Daily and The Onion. "One of the 'Debunking the Myth' ads mentions how we have three Nobel Prizes, 16 astronauts and so on. There are a lot of great things outside the realm of partying that take place on this campus, and I believe it's just a matter of making people aware of them," Deardorff said.
In addition to the newspaper ads, the group is hanging posters all over campus, putting table tents in the UMC and all dining halls and expects to have a Web site up and running soon.
The students have found a lot of support on campus. "I had a friend of mine who parties come up to me asking if I wanted help from him with this campaign," Deardorff said.
He believes that kind of feedback shows the campaign is getting students to think and talk about the issue, and that "Debunking the Myth" could make a difference.