Comments on: Freshmen will get shorter WOW next year

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:12:18 +0000

WOW is not the issue, all of the freshman drinking during WOW is facilitated by the fraternities and sororities around the campus, during the week these organizations should not be permitted to hold events – if they violate this suggestion then they will no longer be permitted to affiliate with on campus events (rush week etc.). simple solution.

Also, if WOWies didn’t have bracelets they would not be as easy to identify or target for these events.

By: James

James — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:23 +0000

Short of a complete military state, there will be college parties. There will be alcohol and drugs. Yes, Poly should educate freshman of the dangers and teach them how to be safe if they do choose to participate. If parents have an issue with this, then maybe they should send their kids to a school that does have traditional college parties like BYU.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:30:14 +0000

Supposedly, when you turn 18, you are an adult. Mailing letters home to parents is not treating them like adults, but more like minors. If they drink too much and wind up in the hospital, that’s their decision and they should be free to experience any of the consequences. The parents have failed their children if one of the first things the child does with his new-found independence is drink himself stupid or get arrested.

Also, shortening next year’s WoW is punishing next year’s incoming class for the actions of this year’s freshman class.

By: BMB

BMB — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:21:49 +0000

I dont see how the spike in drink that supposedly occurred this year is in any way WOW\’s fault. The whole WOW program is unparalleled in its positive impact on a incoming freshman\’s life. Other programs at other universities don\’t even come close. I have spoken to many friends who wished they would have had an orientation program like WOW. In addition, WOW goes to great lengths to inform these incoming freshman on the danger of not just alcohol, but of other things as well, such as drugs and depression.

I dont think there was necessarily that big of a spike in drinking this year as opposed to any other year. This years group of freshman just happened to get caught. Anybody who takes a drive down Hathway during WOW can see this every year with out fail. Mobs of freshman are house hunting looking for the next party where they can get a free beer or shot. And the worst thing is, almost everyone of these houses is just sitting there welcoming them with opened arms.

Its unfortunate really that it has taken an event like this for the university to take responsibility for what has been going on right under there nose. As usual, if there is no bad press because of it, it gets swept under the rug until next year. It was a time bomb just waiting to go off.

If the university really want to put an end to this, then encourage the police to crack down on the partying that goes on OUTSIDE of WOW. I have seen police officer drive right buy houses where only a fool would think that underage drinking is not going on inside. Although they are not the only culprit, the Greek system definitely plays a role in this. Different fraternity houses, wanting to get their name out there as the place to party and pick up girls, go to great lengths to get freshman into there house and partying with them. Yet the university and the greek system have done nothing about it. Even back in my freshman year, people were announcing parties on Facebook letting freshman know exactly where to go for some free booze.

WOW is not the source of all this debauchery. In my experience with WOW, the only thing i really saw during the week was WOW leaders letting freshman know where to go to find a party after all the WOW events were over. Any WOW leaders that I knew who got caught drinking with their WOWies were almost immediately expelled. If WOW is guilt of anything, its not being strick enough with who they allow to be WOW leaders and represent their organization.

Dont punish WOW because they have been branded as the face of this problem. Instead, I would encourage the university to take a hard look at what else is going on. If WOW is guilt, then the program should by all means be altered. But I find it hard to believe that changing anything about WOW would fix this problem.

By: David

David — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:37:28 +0000

The information in this article only serves to highlight that Fall Launch was more to blame for the excessive drinking than WoW was. The graphic at the right doesn’t even have the correct dates for Wow! Also, taking the survey data from the freshmen is totally unreliable. Most students just put the highest scores or average scores for any school survey. Unless they felt strongly that the program didn’t help (Which it did) however the Fall Launch was new and not as structured as WoW and didn’t keep the kids busy enough during the evening to even have kids consider not partying. WoW does a much better job at this and it does it for a full 5 days. 3.5 days is shortcutting a great program because of a little misguided media attention.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:58:13 +0000

If Cal Poly thinks that freshmen can’t handle making their own choices for 5 days, what does this say about the quality of people being admitted to Cal Poly?

I was a WOWie 4 years ago. I drank during WOW. My WOW group had parties after WOW. Every single member of my WOW group has either graduated from Cal Poly or is now a fifth year. None of us dropped out or got arrested.

Cal Poly already has one of the most pathetic campus communities of any big public university–there is NOTHING to hold students on campus that compares to what’s available to them off campus. Taking away WOW would be a disaster for Cal Poly’s student life and would remove one of the few unique things Cal Poly has to offer.

One last thing-I met my husband in WOW 4 years ago; we got drunk at a post-WOW party and have been together ever since. Sometimes letting students have a little fun is not a disaster!

By: Nichole

Nichole — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:19:21 +0000

Solution: Don’t have the first day of school on Tuesday!

Crack down on off-campus parties close to campus. They’re not hard to find!

Keep WOW the way it is. I think drinking will be even worse without the connections made during WOW. WOWies will not respect their WOW leaders if they don’t get to know them. Their whole WOW experience is going to be presentations on alcohol abuse. Good luck getting participants!

Don’t let students move into the dorms early if they aren’t doing WOW or something else campus related.

By: Sammy

Sammy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:09:06 +0000

Ya know, WOW has been around for a while, and sure it has done some good things in its time. But I think that the President\’s office is right. WOW is obviously the problem. Clearly, we should cut the whole program and let the freshmen figure things out on their own.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:27:10 +0000

People need to take a step back and realize the ramifications of shortening WOW week. There are so many logical fallacies in here. The first being that the author polarizes all the freshman into a drunken group of partiers. You can\’t let a small percentage of the freshman represent the majority.

Also, there is a huge appeal to fear when the writter say that if we don\’t shorten WOW week there will be more freshman arrests, alcohol abuse, etc. If we don\’t do anything will freshman really drop like flies?

It was a community wide problem this year but if students start getting admitted to the ER room during the middle of the year are we going to shorten the academic schoool year?

WOW is a great program that is a huge part of the reason why freshman feel so comfortable here. I went through it last year and it made the transition process much easier.

With less days it is more inconvenient. Parents need to help the students move in and most are working so how does a mid week move in accomadate them? You can\’t expect freshmen to drive especially when Cal Poly tells freshmen they don\’t need cars and the permit is $400?

The problem isn’t WOW.

By: Chloe

Chloe — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:34:08 +0000

Anyone will say that WOW week is one of the best weeks of their college experience. Coming to college, most students have partying on their mind, and it is bound to happen. Shortening a week that everyone is excited about will not do anything. Students will obviously still go out regardless if it is WOW week or not. During that week, everyone was educated on alcohol and drug abuse, and that is the best the school can do to warn students about the consequences. It is a hasty generalization to say that all the years to come, will act the same way just because of this year. Cal Poly does its best to educate their new students on alcohol and drugs, and they can only do so much. However, I do not think that shortening their will week will change the matter. I think just because of the incidents that occurred last year, resulted in higher security. RAs and police flooded Cal Poly and the freshman this year were caught because they were more alert and did not want the same thing to occur again. This is why we are more aware of all these incidents because we were on the look out for them. Taking away the freshman’s WOW week for next year will not have that much of an affect as the school thinks. Whether they want to believe it or not, they will drink if they choose to drink.