Twelve out of the twenty “Drunkest Cities in America” as identified by 24/7 Wall Street’s are in Wisconsin and UW-Madison is the Princeton Review’s 2016 top party school. Needless to say, Wisconsin has a reputation.
This is nothing new. In the 1980s, Wisconsin was the last state in the nation to raise their legal drinking age to 21. They did so only after former President Ronald Reagan threatened to pull funding for states that did not comply with the standard.
Instead of taking AlcoholEdu and hiding alcohol from resident advisors, UW-Madison alumni could drink openly.
“We went to bars a lot, I’ll admit,” Jackie Zondag a 1983 graduate, said . “I believe as a freshman we could have beer in our dorm rooms, there wasn't any restrictions. I was just in Madison and talking to one of my old roommates and she thought you could even have kegs, believe it or not.”
Zondag was the only girl from her Wisconsin high school to go to Madison, but said that it was easier to get into then than today.
After living in the dorms her freshmen and sophomore years, Zondag said extracurriculars weren’t as prevalent. While resident advisors would plan events, students mostly went to bars together.
She remembered the first toga party her freshman year in 1979, football games even before the team was good, and buck pitchers of beer at The Stone Hearth on Wednesdays.
“I can't remember it being a big deal,” said Zondag of dorm policies. “It was more focused on drugs and smoking, I would say. Maybe the focus was more on that because drinking was legal.”
While Zondag remembers a relaxed attitude, 1964 alumnae Judith Ward was a resident advisor and enforced a university policy of curfews for women. She said that as an RA, she did go through training but it was not nearly as comprehensive and many decisions fell to “dorm mothers”.
Ward recalled a very active student life in organizations, social activism and dedication to studies.
However, Ward added that even though she wasn’t in Greek life, “Wisconsin has always known how to have fun.The enthusiasm around sports and the ability to enjoy a party and beer has always been there. Fraternities had parties and there was always a lot of celebration around sports.”
Both of Zondag’s children attend UW-Madison themselves and acknowledged their experience differs in some ways from her own. She noted that she thinks about what it would be like if the age went back to 18, she notes that she didn’t remember blood alcohol poisonings and hospitalizations happening to students back then.
Zondag still keeps in touch with many of her college friends, and they and their children will get together and even visit “old haunts” when they’re in Madison.
“Campus itself has changed a lot,” Zondag said . “But I'd say for the most part a lot of it's the same. It's still very comfortable.”
