Playboy: Harvard is Not a Party College

The long lines at the Picadilly Filly on any given weekend night may have tipped off the editors of Playboy. Or maybe it was the near-complete absence of a social life at Harvard.

Or maybe they were simply printing something that only a few students have been able to confront about their lives in this part of Cambridge: MIT parties harder than Harvard. So does Boston University--according to a list of the "Top 40 Party Colleges" in the January issue of Playboy. Harvard didn't even get an honorable mention.

The issue, which hit newsstands this week, bills the list as "a ranking by those who know best--the students themselves--of the nation's most dedicated good-time campuses."

Students around the country gave MIT enough votes to land that Cambridge school 25th among American colleges. B.U. snagged 15th place. Even Brown placed 33rd while Dartmouth and Columbia got honorable mentions.

Wayne Duvall, compiler of the results for Playboy, explained that the researchers went to a cross-section of schools in each state. There they asked students to list the schools, besides their own, that they thought partied the most. Then the schools most often mentioned were examined for party atmosphere and students known to be very "socially active" at those schools were tracked down. Candid, anonymous remarks by these students were the basis for the final selections.

California State University came in first, followed closely by the University of Miami and the University of Vermont.

"Massachusetts was a tough state," Duvall said. "Many schools came close. We did speak to Harvard, and they got a couple of third place votes, but their name just didn't come up much. They did give us some great comments about other schools, though."

What about MIT?

"They're wild! They kept coming up all the time. They have lavish parties. They really know how to blow off steam." Among the achievements cited in the article as an example of party mentality was a prank in which MIT students used chemicals to weld shut the gates of Harvard Yard.

MIT students said they were generally not surprised by the results, even Harvard's absence. "For one thing," commented Anthony Fortunato of theSigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, "we don't wearcoat and tie to our parties. At a party atWellesley last year I heard some Harvard studentssay they were going to party at MIT because theirown school was boring."

Students at Dartmouth were disgruntled at onlyreceiving an honorable mention in the survey."Dartmouth has long been famous as a party school,said Steve Salem, former vice-president of theSigma Nu Delta chapter at Dartmouth. "The movie'Animal House' was based on Dartmouth. MIT? Whatis this?"

Ted Nadeau, President of both the TerraceEating Club at Princeton and that school'sInter-Club Council was similarly displeased at hisschool's omission from the list. "Personally, I'mshocked. I stop working Thursday morning and don'tstart again until Monday right before class. Maybethat's just me, but how can I compete against aschool like UMass-Amherst where 40,000 do the samething?"

I Wouldn't Belong To Any Club With MIT as aMember

Reaction at Harvard was varied. Evan Mandery'89, former Social Committee chairman of theUndergraduate Council said "I'm not all that upsetto not be included on a party list that MIT is on.That survey doesn't sound very scientific and Ithink it's probably just wrong."

Tim Arnold '87, a senior in Cabot House, feltthat Harvard had been "grossly misrepresented.""They should have called us instead of the D.U.club or whatever. We have parties all the time.But they're intimate parties--just the five of usand our close friends. In just two months for fiveguys we've had more than twenty-five kegs."

However, the present chairman of the UC'sSocial Committee, Michael Goldenberg '88, sawHarvard's omission from the list of revellers asproof of a disturbing problem. "I would have beenshocked if we were on the list, and if anything,it's all the more indicative of the amount of helpwe need. Campus-wide, everything is completelylacking here."

"Harvard is one of the only schools around thathas no campus-wide events," Goldenberg continued."Everything is centered around the house system,which divides people. If your house has a largebudget and throws great parties you're lucky.

"We have no frat system--only the elitist FinalClubs which dampen social life by only servingthose in the clubs," Goldenberg said. "Fratsthemselves aren't necessary but we have nothingwhich replaces them.