Back To Previous
 
   
 

Celebrating 150 Years  |  Alumni Memories

Cara Jepsen '86
Stentor Columnist (1983-1986)


When I first visited the campus in 1982, our guide said that we’d be treated as adults, and that whatever happened behind closed doors was our business. But then The Preppy Handbook labeled the College a party school, and what we did became everybody’s business. They even cancelled Ra weekend.
 
During the 80s we saw the resurgence of the Greek system and the birth of the Young Republicans.  The newly rehabilitated College Hall became Young Hall -- but we never called it that.  Live entertainment in Commons included Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, and Naked Raygun; T. Bone Burnett hosted our talent show. But by senior year video dances and frat parties were the norm. 

The radio station moved to the basement of Commons in 1982, and we had over 80 members from all social strata. The newspaper was equally vibrant.

During senior year we marched into town protesting Apartheid and encouraging the College to divest its South African holdings. Some of our Greek classmates hurled epithets at us.

The Bears played the Patriots in the Superbowl, which divided the campus, and on Wednesday nights at Scornavacco’s we’d each dance to our team’s song -- and boo the other team.  Pat Summerall and John Madden did the “All Madden Picks” from South Campus that year.

The campus became really polarized when Dean Steve Witter tried to reform room draw and take away the purpose units’ preferential housing.  I wrote a parody song to the tune of “The Superbowl Shuffle.  Some students recorded it for the radio station, and it was published in the newspaper.

I was eating dinner in Szabo the day the newspaper hit the stands.  Suddenly I was surrounded by Phipes pledges. I could not escape as they sang, “Let me call you sweetheart” and then yelled, “You suck!”  Members of other Greek organizations harassed my radio station friends, and I was warned to leave a video dance because "the brotherhood" was out to get me. I bought a locking gas cap for my car, and didn’t go anywhere without a burly male escort.

Several professors wrote a letter of support to the Stentor, and there was a town meeting to dispel the tension. Some of the troublemakers were taken to our version of court (Professor Richard Handler lounged on the floor during the proceedings), and received a slap on the wrist.

The purpose units got to keep their housing, and I ended up getting a mohawk and hating everyone for a while. What I didn’t do was stop writing.