I’m a freshman, and I had never heard of Springfest, seen photos or heard accounts of what happens there. That is, until it was cancelled.

And even as someone who can’t legally drink, and who doesn’t party, I think its cancellation is incredibly misguided.

From my understanding, Springfest isn’t a concrete event; it’s far more nebulous. It’s a weekend in which college students drink and partake in all sorts of debauchery, and if anything, it sounds pretty normal.

College students party; birds fly south for the winter; lions mate for life. It’s the natural way of things. So when the decision to attempt to shut down the concert that takes place in the park every year was made, I was confused.

Students will party anyway. Only now the parties will be private, and the controls on alcohol consumption will be non-existent.

The fact is this decision has only hurt the most organized and the safest part of Springfest. But, as far as I have heard, Springfest has never done any more damage than a standard college party anyway.

The strange part of this for me is that Springfest didn’t even sound that fun. I’m not a guy that enjoys large parties with hundreds of people, but I don’t hate the idea of parties. Plenty of people do, and that’s their preference.

Mayor Michael Brown has been quoted as saying, “You know three-fourths of the students are under 21. They can’t drink, why not have events that include them, rather than exclude them. That way they can have fun, too.”

As a student who is under 21, I think this argument is nonsensical. Why would I care about what other students do? I have friends who are over 21 and they go out to bars and drink without me, and — big surprise — I don’t care.

One day I will be 21, and I can go drink in public. That’s how the world works.

I, and hopefully many other students under 21, won’t be the scapegoats that Mayor Brown wants us to be.

So to all of the students who are upset about Springfest’s cancellation, have as crazy of house parties as you want. Folks like me will either be right there with you, or at home, busy not caring.

Alex Bertsch is the opinion editor of The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].