The Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services (AOD) has researched a comprehensive history of the origins of Spring Weekend to help the university better understand and prepare for the event this weekend, as well as inspire the student body to return to its roots.
The report was created by AOD's acting president Joseph Bores, an 8th-semester psychology major and business minor, who said that his goal in doing the research was to highlight the high level of student involvement in the early days of spring weekend, and encourage that sense of community he feels has been lost.
"I'm interested in getting this information out because nobody around really knows it," he said. "If people can learn some thing about where Spring Weekend came from, then maybe that can be part of solving the problem [of excess drinking and lack of community], just by looking at the bigger picture of things."
According to Bores' research, Spring Weekend originated as a fraternity-organized carnival in 1948 that used innocent events like parades and kissing booths to raise money for charities. The carnival ran through the 1970s, raising more than $169,000 over the years and becoming the third-largest charity fair in the U.S.
By 1979, enthusiasm for the carnival seemed to have run out, and it was officially ended. But a spring concert held during that festival continued, and it was around this event that the current traditions of drinking at Carriage House Apartments and X-Lot were created.
As the parties grew through the 90s, they attracted the attention of people from other cities and schools, who were often the primary instigators of violence and vandalism and have accounted for more than half of the arrests during Spring Weekends.
Bores said the USG's pep rally, which was started in 2005, has been integral in reducing rampant drinking and violence and fostering non-drinking events like Oozeball, residence hall programs and various speakers and comedians organized by the AOD.
Given the many events groups sponsor to promote safe Spring Weekend festivities, Bores urged students to avoid rampant drinking.
"The creation of the Campus Community Carnival in 1948 was a wonderful accomplishment by UConn students," Bores said. "Again, UConn students are rising up to do the right thing. We want to make sure that we always have our weekend. If we all make the effort to be safe in the way we go out and celebrate, then we always will."
Bores suggested some of the events that the AOD has organized for the upcoming weekend, like a speech by Lynn Smith on Wednesday describing one woman's struggles with ecstasy while in college, or the Southapalooza carnival on Saturday. He also praised the Take Back The Night Campaign that AOD has helped organize to get students active in promoting a safe weekend. Take Back the Night is a competition where students design safe drinking advertisements.
Bores said that efforts like the AOD have reduced the glamour of Spring Weekend, and helped make fun alternatives available.
"The general consensus I've seen among my friends is that a lot of people go home now," he said. "A lot of people aren't interested in [Spring Weekend] because they'd rather spend quality time with their friends than go out and not remember and stand around with a lot of people."
Still, many people enjoy the current Spring Weekend traditions, and supplement many of these safe activities with further drinking. But Bores said this did not discourage him.
"If we can prevent just one bad thing from happening then we still have a reason to keep working for it," he said. "The general campus doesn't really love what we're doing and we just have to keep working because someone needs to."
Contact Christopher Duray at
Christopher.Duray@UConn.edu.
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