Take a look outside your building on any Friday or Saturday night (or for some, Thursday’s too). You will see countless people walking around, going from one place to another. Its as though at 10PM, class is in session, but students aren’t carrying backpacks full of books.

Pacific is a very ambitious University that prides themselves on academic success. As I have learned it, the administrators at this campus want the outside world to view Pacific as a somewhat clean slate school where students eat, sleep and study. Not eat, sleep, go to class and party like it’s the end of the world tomorrow.

A legend of this University who graduated this past spring once said, “… we pound handles, not fifths.” Take this motto to any University around the country and you too can probably out drink anyone. I found this to be true at Chico State, rumored to be one of the greatest party schools in California.

Pacific students need to “blow off steam” every now and then said one graduate student. They need to find a way to release the pressures and stresses of class. Unlike at many other institutions around our great nation, Pacific loves to load you up with courses which happen to be held on Fridays.

Mark Schooley, a senior at San Diego State said that most students don’t have class on Friday, and for the few that do, they don’t go. That’s hard to do when most major tests are on Fridays here at Pacific.  

During my short-lived career as a Computer Engineer I found my advisor filling my schedule up with 18 units each semester so that I could graduate on time. Engineering at Pacific is a five-year program. As soon as I switched to Communication, my peers were shocked when I was all gung-ho about taking 18 units a semester.

Lets face it, Pacific students are stressed, and what better ‘legal way’ to relax, besides smoking marijuana, than to poison our bodies with alcohol on the weekends and ready ourselves for another grueling week of academic work.

Students partying at the University of Arizona

So why is this the case? Does it have anything to do with the fact that we are in Stockton? I heard a student say the other night, “there is nothing to do in Stockton but get drunk.” This may be true, as Stockton doesn’t really have much to offer if you don’t have a car.

Walking to downtown Stockton may leave you in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest. Main campus is a beautiful oasis in the middle of a concrete and asphalt world known as the armpit of California. As long as the sun is out campus is safe. Come nightfall, many students won’t dare cross the Wood Memorial Bridge that connects north and main campus.

Students are over worked and stressed out on the many things that get dropped in their lap during the day. I’m not going to lie, when I re-wrote this article I was very stressed out. The ESB original ale that was left in my fridge fixed that up right quick. Maybe I’m not like most students.

My peers are studiously cramming their brain full of information on Organic Chemistry, but I am sure I will see them out “on the town” on Friday night because they need that relaxation which partying provides for them.

On my last, non-RA-interrupted night of drinking away brain cells I found myself very relaxed. The papers I have due in a few days were not even a thought in my head. The troubles in Iraq and our Monkey president in office didn’t leave any sense of worry in my heart. Alcohol, a very body numbing poison relaxes your person, go ask anyone at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

So what does all this mean? Pacific students are over worked, students who hold jobs outside of campus while still taking a full course load crave partying and relaxation. Students with just enough units to be considered a full-time student can usually be found in their rooms practicing their Beirut (beer pong) skills or working on their World of Warcraft character.

Everyone needs to relax every now and then, to clear their mind and what better way to do it at Pacific but to grab a brew with your friends and reflect on times past and the future ahead. But for many, living in the present is the way to go, so head on over to Valley Brew and order a pitcher of your favorite beer.

Comments (14)

	1. 03:25AM 09-19-2006
	The Bridge Never again shall I cross that bridge alone! Stockton is not a place to walk alone at night. Amen to you, and your statement.  Guest

Tina B

	2. 03:30AM 09-19-2006
	ESB Original Ale? "The ESB original ale that was left in my fridge fixed that up right quick"    Funny, I seem to remember having some ESB at your townhouse.. Never did figure out what happened to it. Guest

Neo

	3. 03:31AM 09-19-2006
	theres alot of truth in this Although i have never really took partying into this perspective, i can find myself relating to alot of it. Guest

Andrew

	4. 04:04AM 09-19-2006
	Brett's take I've wandered this campus at 2am before in a drunken stupor, and I can't help but notice that it's not frightening, it's actually dead. And does having big tests on Friday really mean that students party harder than they would if their tests were on another day? Guest

NEOpigdog

	5. 04:07AM 09-19-2006
	Brett's Take tests on friday.. hm.. i don't have class friday.. so i party hard on thursdays.. and fridays and saturdays.. and well.. i'm a comm major.. so i party when i want.. even if it is with less than 10 people.     but yes.. campus is dead at night... but i gotta say.. i do find myself running back to the townies every now and then. Guest

nick

	6. 04:13AM 09-19-2006
	Its college and its stocktown althogh im sure Pacific has a good party scene its hard to believe the quote about one student saying he pounds handles instead of fifths and that he can out drink anyone at any campus across the U.S. i dare him to come to the University of Arizona. Where our thursday nights are your Spring breaks. The very wise and knowledgeable writers at playboy magazine wrote...."the University of Arizona is no longer rated in our top annual party schools list, because we feel that it is unfair to include professionals in a list of amateurs". so i leave you with this thought. if you think your school is a raging party school, which im sure all colleges are cept for a few i.e. BYU and the Military Academeys, then come test your "partying" skills out down here in the desert. Cause to be honest. there aint nuthing much to do down here cept drink and party cuz its so damn hot all the time so ur always drinking something by a pool. just a thought though. Guest

-Will

	7. 04:22AM 09-19-2006
	re: Its college and its stocktown U of A has parties that have more than the population of Pacific in attendance. I'm sure you guys consume tons of booze as a whole, but also look at the volume of people that are there.    But you also talk about students who do nothing but drink. and here we go to class and get an education. perhaps u of a isn't about that. We gotta keep up to our "ivy league" of the west status.     plus i'm sure its still warm in tucson. next week will begin to get cold for us. and then.. its winter (mm.. snow)... but to each his own. Guest

nick

	8. 04:26AM 09-19-2006
	RE: The comment above while this is true there are some people who just drink and not do school we do have a great educational institution here and just b/c people party does not mean we shun our studies. i kno for myself i party hard on thursday-saturday nights. yes i have class on fridays which i go to still go to and actually engage in class activities. so im just saying that when it comes to partying we all do it. its just those who let it get the best of them that mess up. BTW im a double major in history and Pre-law and still do well in school. just goes to show to each his own school is his responsibility Guest

will

	9. 04:48AM 09-19-2006
	Dont quote me Dentistry, aka 'the suicide profession', is a very common major at Pacific. Ponder that one for a while. During my time in stockton I have never had a stronger desire to eat a bullet, and pacific did nothing but aid that feeling. With contradictory policies and buricradic tape that can circle the globe so many times it looks like a rubberband ball, you would suspect that it would be accepted that not only detists but the whole student body would have tendancies toward ending the exsistance known, pathetically at pacific, as college life. I agree with the AZ student, people at colleges all over can, and will, party much harder than pacific students because pacific students can not get over themselves enough to unite and have a good time. There are those that have tried, so forgive me if your complaints fall on deaf ears. Those that have tried to unite the campus have been banished, never to return. While looking through college books today, I discovered the lies spewed by pacific that we all believed in the begining that led us to this path of disgrace we know today as the underqualified professor and staff, that not only dont care about you, but focus so much on the image of pacific that they dont even notice the suffering endoured by its current students. Dont get me wrong, I am all about looking toward the future, but you have to satisfy the current student body to ensure success in the future. This is the end of my rant, I know I might have made mistakes in spelling, but if you want to refute me, do it based on the points I made. Note to the writer of this article...if you have to drink to forget about the president, maybe you shouldn't be in this country. I am sure that china would be more than willing to take you in... Guest

Pacific sucks

	10. 04:58AM 09-19-2006
	RE: to this comment above as well the thing about college is that you will never remember what grade you got on the pointless stupid quiz for your GE or even for classes in your major. but i guarentee you will remember the nights with your friends and the crazy times that you had. THATS wat college means to me. yea im getting my degree and yea its going to help me with my career but its only a piece of paper im paying for really. the real education happens outside of the classroom. it happens at parties and friends houses. it happens everywhere. so remember. when you're like 40. your not gonna remember how you did on the Econ Quiz or Humanities final. but i know you will remember all the good times that make you sit back and laugh and think. Wow. college was the greatest and craziest 4-5 years of my life. the things we do in college we could never do as grown responsible adults. look at our parents! i know my parents did crazy stuff in college but thats why its college. live it up now cuz before you know it, it will be time to graduate and then life REALLY starts. Guest

will