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“Oh, you go to CU Boulder? You must smoke a lot of pot!”
You know you have an image problem when this is the first thing you hear out of someone’s mouth while visiting China.
I remember coming to CU as a freshman, having heard about the 4/20 celebration. I won’t lie, I was enthralled. I couldn’t wait until April rolled around so I could see what all the fuss was about.
A haze of marijuana smoke sits upon Norlin Quad as a 4/20 crowd lights up at 4:20 p.m. in 2011.This year, CU is planning to close off the quad to everyone, including students. (CU Independent File/Robert R. Denton)
I still remember walking over to Norlin Quad ready for the celebration to begin. However, as soon as I got out to the quad, all I could think was, “Why? What are we accomplishing here? All I see is people who are not even from Boulder, dropping their trash left and right and creating a massive traffic jam for the kids who still have to go to class.”
Things only got worse over the next two years. Everywhere I went those 4/20s all I heard was, “Do you know where the quad is man?” or “Hey man you holding?”
I looked around and watched as the beautiful campus I know and love was turned into nothing more than a Phish concert without the music, and again, all I could do was ask myself why we invite these high school kids, these hippies from God knows where, to trash our campus? Why do we make the daily routine for our students a living hell? What’s the point?
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against marijuana or anyone who uses it. I personally do not smoke. I just have yet to see any ground breaking progress or benefit from the 4/20 rally every year that I’ve been here at CU.
So far, the only effect that I’ve seen from 4/20 is the image I take on as a Buffalo because of it. All that I’ve seen is a furthering of the stereotype the rest of the country holds for us as Buffs. Everywhere I go I’m a stoner, a hippie, or a pothead. All of this just because I go to CU, a fantastic higher-education institution that has so much more to offer than a giant pro-marijuana protest every spring.
In the past this has only been a minor concern for me. It was not until this summer in China at my internship that I realized, “Wow, this stereotype could really become a problem for me.” As a graduating senior, my image is basically all that I have. I have to sell myself to be successful in the future. All that this so-called celebration is doing is hurting that image. Devaluing my degree. If I can go all the way across the world and be labeled a stoner just because of my alma mater, who’s to say it won’t happen one or two states away?
Needless to say I was ecstatic to see the email in my inbox from the administration last week, informing everyone that Norlin Quad would not be hosting the annual 4/20 rally this year. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Maybe we as a student body can finally rid ourselves of our stoner stereotype.
Contact CU Independent Marketing Director Logan DeVane at Logan.devane@colorado.edu.
Tags: 4/20 cu boulder CU Buffaloes marijuana Norlin Quad smokeout University of Colorado daily student news site weed
6 Comments
A Phish concert is nothing like 4/20. And would be an awesome thing to have on campus for the record.
And why are we posting about one persons thoughts here? Could you not get any other sources. It goes beyond a bunch of people smoking pot. If you cant prove you deserve a job with your degree even though some ppl smoke weed on your campus once a year, you probably don’t
HN,
This is an editorial. Therefore, the point of view of one person.
I personally agree with this. When I tell friends from all over where I go to school, I, too, get the “Oh, the Number 1 party school!” or various comments about pot. Regardless of how I present myself and my accomplishments, people will and do judge based on the college of graduation. I went to the Colorado School of Mines for awhile, and I get more interest about that than my degree from CU.
It’s frustrating to have to defend your choice of schools, when the good gets overshadowed by the drinking of those who attend and the smoking of people who don’t even attend.
That’s the whole point of an editorial .. it’s a viewpoint. Just some FYI.
HN: LOL, you are reading an editorial piece, read “opinion.” People are allowed to hold a different opinion than you, and write about it, ahem, free speech. Also, what Logan is saying, is that as a recent grad, most employers are concerned with knowing that you received a quality education from an institute of higher learning. When the quality of your education is overshadowed by an event that has no place on our campus, that is when I have a problem. Marijuana legalization has not been aided by the 4/20 protests, if people are really looking to make change, go to lawmakers at the Capitol and protest there. Especially given that any student who has walked around campus on 4/20 can clearly tell that the majority of “protesters” are high school students looking to rebel, or people who don’t have anything better to do, like be successful and work…
This has been the angle of everything the independent has posted on the issue. I know there are some students who feel otherwise and things to be discussed other than weed use, ask the ACLU.
Just saying, how many of these articles do we need need?
see: Help, help I’m being oppressed!
The article about staying classy
and the general feel to all the articles covering the event.
And to the point about the event not helping the legalization movement. WRONG. The state senate has support on both sides to add regulating weed like alcohol to the ballot coming up, and we are one of the most forward thinking states on the issue because the Colorado representatives pay attention to what their people are saying.
Also it’s completely ignorant to assume that the people who go to 4/20 on campus don’t like to be successful or work. I’m personally doing an unpaid internship and working part time.
Way to go Logan! I can only imagine the frustration of being a great student at a credited university only to have the reputation follow you of being a “stoner” or “pothead”. I don’t smoke either…really don’t see much wrong with other than IT IS ILLEGAL. Great to see a young man such as yourself standing behind your school for what it is…a great school, not a Potfest smoking ground.