TheLittleHawk Iowa City High School - Iowa City, Iowa - Volume 70, Issue 1 - September 21, 2012 - www.thelittlehawk.com
Iowa City: A party culture By Cassie Wassink
cassiewassink@thelittlehawk.com
ABOVE: Iowa City on a Friday night during the school year. photos by Eli Shepherd
Beer cans litter the ground and the bars are easily detectable by the lines that wind from the front door onto the sidewalk outside. It is a Friday night in downtown Iowa City, and the party scene is on. Recently, a Princeton Review ranking highlighted this aspect of UI student life. The U of I appeared as number two on a list of the top twenty party schools. While the University is a separate entity entirely from City High, City High students have commented on the influence that this party culture has on their high school experience. “I have friends at the University so I’ve stayed in the dorms with them and gone out with them to parties,” one City High senior said. “I guess everyone does have closer access, and teenagers, people from our school, will say that they’re going to a college party, or they’ll just go to parties downtown because they’re there.” While students attest to the presence of drinking at the University, UI spokesman Tom Moore debates the validity of the recent ranking. “It was puzzling, because we don’t understand the criteria used by the Princeton Review, and we have no indication that the survey has any validity or accuracy,” Moore said. Describing past experience with this survey, Moore referenced the leap up from the ninth-ranked party school following the 21-ordinance. He also cited recent data from the National College Health Survey showing record-low drinking levels among students who drink routinely. “There are fewer arrests for public intoxication amongst students,” Moore said. “It just doesn’t seem to match with the objective evidence we’ve seen.”
Despite Moore’s objection to the accuracy of this student-based survey, he does recognize that drinking remains a work in progress at the University. “Clearly there is still work to be done, but also there are some very positive signs,” Moore said. “These parties or celebrations occur on every campus. The University of Iowa is certainly no exception.” MECCA, a community-based organization which offers substance abuse and behavioral health services, weighed in on the issue. MECCA vice president Shannon Wagner commented on the presence of partying and alcohol at City High, prefacing her statements by acknowledging the intrinsic relationship between high school students and experimentation with alcohol and drugs. “It’s a common thing, and not just because it’s City High,” Wagner said. “It’s because at any school with high schoolers, it’s just a common issue for teenagers that they’re dealing with trying alcohol and drugs.” Wagner went on to describe how, despite the natural experimentation that is bound to exist at any high school, the University’s reputation as a party school does have a definite impact on City High students. “With the University, when you grow up here, you certainly see a lot of drinking,” Wagner said. “It’s kind of tough when you’re being told you’re under 21, you’re not allowed to drink at all. It’s kind of a mixed message.” City High MECCA contact William Batten expressed a similarly mixed perspective on the effect that alcohol at the University has on City High students. “Sometimes people in the community have misconceptions about the amount of drinking at the University,” Batten said. “I’m not saying
it’s not a problem. The University is well aware, and they have undertaken a lot of efforts to change the behaviors.” But Batten also expressed the belief that University drinking has the power to shape the experience of high school students. “The perception that all college kids drink puts a lot of pressure on high school students to feel like that’s something they need to do to be successful, or a rite of passage,” he said. Batten also echoed some of Moore’s sentiment, commenting on the damage of the Princeton Review’s ranking, as internalized by high schoolers. “The main thing that concerns me is that people’s perception about what happens at the University can create a culture where it is okay to drink; it’s permissible, based on rankings that are not based on factual evidence,” Batten said. It is not only MECCA authorities commenting on this influence. City High students attested first hand to the impact of alcohol at the University on their own experience of partying. “If I wasn’t in Iowa City, I probably wouldn’t have been to house parties before,” one senior said. “The people [I] work with are all [University] students, so they have parties.” Another senior described a similar situation. “The people I work with, they party a lot, so I hear about parties and I’ll hang out with them sometimes, and I go to a few parties,” this senior said. Questions remain about the accuracy and reliability of the Princeton Review’s survey-based ranking. Yet, according to both MECCA officials and City High students, there is no question about the impact of the UI party culture on CH students’ relationship with alcohol and partying.
City alum introduces President Obama in Ames By Renata Stewart
renatastewart@thelittlehawk.com
On August 28, Mischa Olson ‘08 had a normal conversation with a man about her biology research and interest in politics at Iowa State University. What wasn’t so normal, however, was the fact that the man was President Barack Obama. The City High graduate (who had been chosen to introduce the President at a rally on the ISU campus) was waiting for her turn to speak when he came up behind her and started making small talk. “He was genuinely interested in what I was up to,” Olson said. “He cares about people, and that’s what makes a good president.” Graduating from Iowa State in December with a double major in Biology and Spanish, Olson has been interested in politics since a young age.
“My family was always active in politics in Iowa City,” she said. And as she grew up, this interest never really wavered, leading to opportunities volunteering for Obama’s campaign. “In the summer of 2008, I volunteered for his campaign. And as a freshman at ISU, I got involved in the campaign,” Olson said. The bubbly senior said that her time at City High really pushed her interest in politics. “When I was taking classes at City, my teachers were really good about informing students about the issues, and letting us have free-ranging, important discussions,” she said. When she got to Iowa State however, the political atmosphere changed. “There’s a big republican base in Ames, and a group of friends and I thought that there should be a more balanced debate and that both sides should be heard,” she explained. This led to them “re-booting” the Iowa
State College Democrats in order to pressure to write the perfect speech, said. “I just had to get them fired up. I make their voices heard. however, came a sense of calm in could just talk about things I was pasAll of this work and political knowing her constituency. sionate about.” interest culminated in her introduc“Of course I wanted to write Olson took this quiet confidence tion of the president this past month. something that was really, really to the venue, and as she was walkAbout a week before the event, Olson good. But then I realized that the ing out on stage, the President of the got a call from the Obama campaign majority of the people in the crowd United States gave her a boost, yelling headquarters, who said that they already wanted to be there. I wasn’t after her: “Go, Mischa!” were interviewing her as well as 5 or 6 trying to convince anyone,” Olson other students in order to get an idea of the issues that were important to them. Later in the week, another call came. This time it was from the Secret Service, asking her for her social security number. And finally, on the Friday before the big event, a third call came, asking her if she would like to introduce the President. She accepted the offer, and set about drafting her speech. “The campaign suggested that I write about why I support Obama,” Olson said. “And why I think that participation among people my age is especially important.” Along with the ABOVE: Mischa Olson ‘08 hugs the president on the ISU campus. Iowa State Daily