There's something about the University of Wisconsin-Madison that puts it on the map. Compared with Harvard, the x-factor isn't our academic prestige. And while usually placing near or in the top ten, we're not the nation's number one party school. But we rock at doing both simultaneously. And that's why this student body may, in fact, be the most talented.
The students at this campus pride themselves on achieving academic success and excelling socially. "Work hard, play hard" so accurately embodies UW’s mentality that it has become our unofficial mantra. And the strangest part is, it totally works. We’re ranked for our partying and our academics.
So when the city threatened to cancel one of Madison's most beloved parties, students understandably freaked. Now the city has flip-flopped, allowing the party to continue, dragging the police behind.
Mifflin has been an issue for decades. The Mifflin Street Block Party started as the 1969 street protest against the Vietnam War. Police refused to allow permission for the street protest and ended up in a confrontation that lasted three nights. Students threw rocks at police and defended themselves with road barricades. The protest came to a close when police responded with tear gas and billy clubs. In the end, 70 people were injured and more than 100 were arrested.
Try to remember all the way back to Mifflin 2011. Yes, two people were stabbed. Obviously that was going to be an obstacle at some point in Mifflin's future. After the festivities, Madison Police said they wanted Mifflin gone because of increased violence and cost to the city. But if 162 people were arrested in 2011, how much has changed?
At the last Mifflin Block Party, open intoxicants were allowed on the streets for the first time since the ’90s. Probably not the best idea. This change was part of a three-year-long effort to shift the event focus from alcohol consumption to food and organized entertainment. That's according to the Madison Police Department. And no, I'm not kidding.
"This is unacceptable," Mayor Paul Soglin said after last year's bash. "The city has no business sponsoring an event where the primary activity is drinking."
Mifflin Neighborhood Association member Peggy LaHahieu agrees. “When the [student representatives] speak of that, they see it as a drunk fest, and I personally am not happy with that,” she said. “It seems that we are having a little bit of conflict there.”
Yes it's a glorified frat party—but what did you expect? The whole thing was initially founded on a brutal anti-war protest. What are we expected to celebrate, a fight for anarchy? It would be beyond paradoxical for the city to allow that. If alcohol consumption is a worse reason to celebrate a tradition whose roots students neither remember, nor appreciate, then why have the party at all?
According to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, “It’s better to work with students, who are the main consumers of the event, than to work against them.” In political speak, if we can't work against them, we might as well work with them. But isn't that where efforts to shift the focus originated? Working with students won't work if the city's ideas are stupid in the first place. Cancel it, or get out of the way.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Mayor Soglin was arrested twice at the Mifflin Block Party in 1969.
Amelia is a junior majoring in Journalism. This is Amelia’s first article as an opinion columnist for The Daily Cardinal! Tell her what you think about her first article by sending a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
