Tufts University students trash Boston hotel during Winter Bash
This year’s Tufts University Winter Bash apparently lived up to its name. The school’s Dean of Student Affairs is outraged over excessive drinking and damage caused to the hotel where the party took place.
In an op-ed in the Tufts Daily student newspaper, Dean Bruce Reitman said 15-20 students drank so much at the Feb. 1 event, they needed medical attention. Reitman is blaming not only those students, but also their friends, who may have encouraged the behavior.
Reitman also expressed outrage at the way Tufts students treated the event’s venue, the Westin Copley Plaza hotel.
“I am referring also to the myriad students who threw up all over the place and everyone who thought it was okay for the hotel staff to clean up the mess,” Reitman wrote. “And I’m referring to the male student and the female student who decided that urinating in the middle of the lobby was okay. Really?”
Reitman pledged that university officials will make changes to future events “to address the evidently widespread belief that Winter Bash is a time to get outrageously drunk and go to a classy Boston hotel. We have to do better.”
The newspaper appears to agree with Reitman’s assessment. In an editorial, the Tufts Daily editors said students should hold themselves to “a higher standard.”
“What this most recent stain on our reputation should warrant, if nothing else, is a comprehensive review of both logistical and moral concerns regarding Winter Bash and events of this nature,” the editorial reads. “Because our proven track record of misconduct at both on−campus and off−campus school−sponsored parties, the purpose of such events should absolutely be reconsidered.”
However, the editorial is a change in tone from an article written just after the event. On Feb. 4, the paper reported that organizers considered the Winter Bash “a success.”
“There were a few hiccups, but [the Office for Campus Life (OCL)] Event Staff and the hotel staff dealt with it well,” Programming Board Co−Chair Christopher Blackett, said in the article. “I only heard good things about them from students.”
Blackett painted a different picture of the event yesterday.
“This year was kind of in shambles,” Blackett told the Tufts Daily. “We expected some problems, but I don’t think we could’ve foreseen the level that occurred.”
Planning is already underway for the Tufts Fall Ball in September — an event with its own history of problems.
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