A change has steadily creept over campus, and perhaps without most students’ full awareness. The weekend din has been dulled to a murmur, the streets swept clean of scantily clad women tottering in herds, and the usual jagged hip hop notes blaring through the darkness have been replaced by a softer, less intrusive echo. A meager budget isn’t the only practice UA plans to implement, but a stricter, dryer, campus as well.
Arrangements originally kept under lock and key managed to find their way into the mouth of a Chatty Cathy and have recently been leaked to the public. The UA previously supported the federal law of a legal drinking age of 21, all others being prosecuted. Now, those residing on the educational Mount Olympus voted in favor of repealing the right for anyone to consume alcohol on university grounds with hopes of creating a safer, and more law abiding environment.
“”I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,”” said pre-business sophomore Richard Blackhurst. “”I mean it’s not like it’s a new thing or something. College students have been drinking legally and illegally forever- it’s part of the package deal and should just be expected by now.””
The impact of UA’s newest policy has yet to be determined as a negative or neutral factor for restaurants in the area- University Boulevard, specifically. But I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Richard Blackhurst doesnt exist, or at least not at the UA, and neither does our dry campus policy. So relax, you’ll probably need a drink after this, and hey, happy April Fools’ Day. Students on campus may not have any particular plans to pull a prank this April 1st, but they can think of a couple past instances that left them reeling.
Pulling pranks may seem like a practice of the past when students mention that their worst prank experiences arose at the hands of mom and dad. “”When I was young, my mom used to put rocks in my lunch bag,”” said engineering management senior Suzannah Herron.
“”My friends took my car. They told me it got stolen the night before. My parents were in on it,”” said math education junior Blake Hamrick.
Though that’s not to say a few didn’t lurk in the shadows until the sun dawned on their day of avengement. “”I went to Home Depot and I bought a giant roll of the orange construction caution tape, and I tied it around my stepdad’s entire car. He actually drove on the freeway to work with it still on because he thought it was so funny,”” said elementary education alum Megan Dahlberg.
“”I called my parents last year and told them my girlfriend was pregnant. They didnít take it too well,”” said history junior John Landwehr.
So some pranks turn out to be not so funny on the receiving end. Though not a professed Barbara Streisand fan himself, molecular and cellular biology senior Steven Taylor did admit to feeling the burn of a radio prank a while back. “”It was right after Barbara Streisand retired and one of the local radio stations (I forgot which one) said, ‘We got tickets for a Barbara Streisand show here in Tucson. It’s her last one, no one knows about it, they only told us about it.’ So people were frantically calling in to try and get tickets, and after like the thousandth person they were like, ‘So just to let you know, happy April Fools’! People were really angry,”” said Taylor.
It can be messy, it can be fun, but remember, whatever you decide to do this year for the official prank holiday, it may come back to bite you in the butt in 2010.
