Spring Break
To quell X Lot, offer attractive alternatives
Our Opinion
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Commentary
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Between 6 p.m. on Saturday and 4 a.m. on Sunday, almost as many people were arrested (47) as had been arrested all of last year's Spring Weekend (51). Of these 47, 41 weren't UConn students. In total, 111 were arrested this Spring Weekend, over double last year's total.
And in other news, this year's Spring Concert - typically held on the same night as the X Lot festivities - was instead held three weeks earlier, on April 3.
Coincidence? Probably not. The Spring Concert move was intended to draw less attention and fewer partiers to X Lot, but it obviously didn't work. And if anything, it seems clear that moving the concert had the opposite effect - attendance and crime seem to have skyrocketed at this year's X Lot party/riot/bacchanal.
And why not? If anything, the concert always served to draw people away from X Lot and into Gampel, where its slightly easier to maintain control. It is not as if moving the concert really caused anyone to forget about X Lot, either - not when the local media, the UConn administration and even the administration of Eastern Connecticut State University act as de facto publicists for the event, e-mailing students and parents about the parties like some sort of super-Facebook feed, and bringing scenes of the party's carnage into the homes of residents throughout Connecticut.
The Spring Concert should probably be moved back to "X Lot Saturday," and should be expanded, if anything. Add some more supporting acts, have the concert's performances extend into the wee hours of the morning - whatever needs to be done to draw people away from X Lot. Asking SUBOG to take away the one real alternative students had to partying at X Lot was, as the numbers seem to show, probably the worst thing the administration could have done to attempt to quell the X Lot chaos.
But we have to question why the administration continues to take such relative baby-steps in dealing with the X Lot problem, anyway. X Lot's party is almost certainly the most dangerous night of Spring Weekend, and its right in the middle of campus. While the university can't do anything about Celeron and Carriage (being privately-owned apartment complexes and all), X Lot is state property, through and through.
The state could actively attempt to kill "X Lot Saturday," if it really wanted to. As the administration of Willington Oaks so ably demonstrated, it is possible to stem the Spring Weekend tide with the proper grit and determination (and police presence).
Rather than eliminate alternatives to partying at X Lot, perhaps the university should look at eliminating the party itself - while encouraging concerts and other more peaceful, more sane entertainment alternatives.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
orlando
posted 4/29/09 @ 10:28 AM EST
I might be wrong, but i was under the assumption that X-lot was NOT UConn property, but instead UConn rented the land from a private owner. I remember reading something about this last year, how the current owner wants to sell it to a new person. (Continued…)
Rachel
posted 4/29/09 @ 9:38 PM EST
Give me a break. As a UConn alumni I attended all 4 years of X-lot and all it is is a giant party where friends gather and are amused by everybody else around. (Continued…)
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