This Iowa Hawkeyes piece is from new TSB contributor Helen Salinger
Way back when, in a time long ago, when I was a young woman growing up in the far reaches and backwoods of Minnesota, my best friend made a declaration to me while we were in high school.
“I want to go to the University of Iowa.”
Huh?
Granted, these were the days of Hayden Fry, but only I would know something like that; surely she didn’t. No, her reasons were different for wanting to go to Iowa.
“I heard it’s one of the easiest Big Ten schools to get into.”
So said BFF went to Iowa and the jokes began — on her part, not mine — of what Iowa stood for.
Idiots Out Wandering Around was my favorite. But now apparently those same idiots are having more fun than the rest of us.
The Princeton Review is ranking Iowa the No. 1 party school in the nation for 2014, ahead of the University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Illinois.
Rounding out the top 10, are West Virginia, Syracuse, Florida, Ohio University, Wisconsin, Penn State and Lehigh.
Lehigh? The pride of the Patriot League? I had no idea they knew how to seriously party up in Bethlehem, PA.
Last year, Iowa was No. 2 on the list and the year before that the Idiots Out Walking Around were No. 4.
I found this article by the Des Moines Register that says the university has been trying hard to discourage its school’s reputation for partying and that the Iowa City city council is looking at the issue of banning bar patrons under the age of 21 from being in those drinking establishments after 10 p.m.
Oh, and at the end of this article it states that some Iowa students who filled out a survey for the Princeton Review say that “academic requirements are minimal,” thus adding to the festive atmosphere on campus. I guess some things never change.