<p>Will Iowa hold their spot on being a top party school? has the new law on getting into the bars push the party else where? If so, will iowa start losing some interested students? thoughts, opinions, concerns...</p>
<p>I have been concern with the 21 ordinance as I see good arguements on both sides but concluded that 19 ordinance was at the schoool and city best interest. My first approach was knowing that “party” school image doesn’t have to mean low academics progress and effort, simply look at UW-Madison and USC… typically rank higher in terms of party schools. Also Iowa City downtown was known to be vibrant by the ordinance, there are now talks of not just bars but shops/ resturants closing. One should also note that schools and their cities must have unique qualities to attract students. The University of Iowa could be joked as The University of Illinois- Iowa City as nearly there is nearly the same amount of Illinois students as there are Iowa. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is known for being a large greek school, and University of Iowa offered an alternative to that scene as being well instead of house parties clubing/ bars and a growing downtown. Since the ordinance many may now show more interest in Illinois,the two schools may, not academically speaking, but socially they may become two of the same. Many may also notice that Illinois rank higher on USNEWS. Yes, these are factors in students choice on schools.
Me and others have had talks about this and I think it was not a smart decision to make, as there are pro’s but just too risky because of its cons.</p>
<p>i have heard bars have lost a huge amount of business and most students are going home on the weekends…</p>
<p>do you think the greek scene is going to rapidly grow within the next few years?</p>
<p>That’s a downside of the 21 ordinance, the greek scene may rapidly grow losing the University of Iowa unique young nightlife feature that it offered as compared to the greek school University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign.</p>
<p>There’s plenty of young nightlife in Champaign-Urbana with the bar entry age of 19 in Champaign and 18 in Urbana. I don’t think people are choosing between Illinois and Iowa based on the nightlife.</p>
<p>^
Oh wow, that’s interesting I didn’t know that about Champaign and Urbana, just mainly heard that about Lincoln.</p>
<p>Okay I will not say nightlife is the deciding factor but it definately give a school points over another. I am personally a all for nature person but also a downtown addict ( may be the reason I visit Chicago twice a month), and I did have a somewhat preference for larger cities due to amenities offered downtown and the big city feel. I just wouldn’t be surprise to know that for some students it is a dominate factor, then look at USNEWS and see Illinois and Iowa difference in ranking… though I personally think Iowa is just as great.</p>
<p>i agree, i think a school that offers a unique and present party scene will have more points over a school that does not. even though school should be about academics… i believe that many college kids will be looking for a full experience of academics and party scene. Iowa is a very strong academic university but for most college kids they correlate iowa with corn… iowa city is far from corn, but besides all the bars in iowa city they really have limited nightlife/party scene type of options. thats why i posted the question if the law was going to push them away. does anyone think that the law will be changed back to how it was?</p>
<p>I don’t think it will, and if it does best chance is probably 6 years from now and I myself would be gone. I’ ve heard the council and mayor works against the student community and have no interest in the young adult voices who are indeed the city/ school future. Sad but said to be true.</p>
<p>Izzie – I did not realize the bar admittance age (= drinking age) at UIUC is still 18/19 … had quite a wild time there 25+ years ago between the bar and sports scenes, but looking back, I wish I had balanced it a little and taken advantage of more that UIUC had to offer.</p>
<p>Yeah I definitely don’t think Iowa can keep their reputation as the best party school since so many of the bars are closing and law officials are seriously cracking down on fake ID’s and underage drinking… no fun. But probably a lot safer and more responsible, etc. etc.</p>
<p>rwe, yes, the bars are still open to the college kids although there is an occasional push to change that. It’s vital to the campustown economy and I hate to hear that the Iowa bars are doing poorly. I’m all for changing the drinking age to 19 though. I really think all the restrictions have changed college drinking behaviors for the worse, with all the pregaming, doing shots and drinking hard alcohol drinks. When I was in college, we had 3.2 beer which was great for me because I was tiny back then. My brother is a volunteer EMT in a college town and boy, does he have stories. Although there was plenty of drunkenness back in the 70’s and 80’s, he says his department sees a lot more alcohol poisoning type events.</p>
<p>Izzie, I agree with you. The drinking age should be 19. </p>
<p>When I was in college the drinking age in my home state was 18. I don’t recall any one ever going to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. We didn’t “pre-game” or drink as fast as we could before we got caught, thus limiting our consumption. </p>
<p>I think that the 21 laws have caused more problems than they’ve solved. And, kids who want to drink will drink, regardless of the drinking age.</p>