Snow melting, songbirds chirping and students day-drinking: These are the signs that spring is here. The “Blarney Blowout” has come and gone, and 73 revelers wish they had slept in on Saturday. As students sobered up on Sunday, University of Massachusetts and Amherst town officials alike were wondering if the old adage of “any publicity is good publicity” still held true, as Amherst once again made national news for all the wrong reasons.

Over the six years that I’ve been at UMass, I’ve always wondered if the University and town are even surprised anymore during these annual “holidays.” The riot police that show up with remarkable expediency seem to indicate that riot-quelling has become fairly habitual in our fair town. This collective expectation of revelry is disappointing for many reasons, but perhaps most poignant is that the people who do not understand the circumstances and motivations of these students do nothing to prevent its reoccurrence. The students may very well be the perpetrators of these annual “celebrations,” but the University and the town of Amherst are certainly complicit in their growth and sustainability.

To put it simply, we have riots at UMass because students have nothing better to do. The surrounding towns don’t interest the majority of the student population, and the University is too far from Boston and New York for students to easily travel there. Because of these circumstances, UMass persists within a pervasive perfect storm of perpetual partying.

Young people will drink and party: That is as certain as death and taxes. However, not all drinking results in property destruction and arrests. Sadly, UMass has shown consistent idiocy when it comes to handling student drinking that goes back to when the Blue Wall stopped operating as a bar. Instead of allowing drinking to happen on campus where it can be better monitored and policed, the administration has instead forced it off campus into downtown Amherst and North Amherst, externalizing a problem that they very well know will arise. UMass needs to actually offer alternatives to these events and give would-be rioters something else to do instead. Writing harshly-worded emails and threatening expulsion only does so much.

In the fall, the University had the right idea in offering an alternative carnival event during the most recent World Series. While local residents and administrators may retch at the thought, plenty of schools have more grandiose displays of day-drinking. Cornell’s Slope Day draws thousands, and Princeton annual reunions draw over 20,000. Yet, despite the open bars and larger crowds, almost no violence and arrests happen at these events. The difference is that these events are institutionalized and accepted; they even draw alumni back to their respective universities when they occur. Participants are happy to pay for the festivities and the proceeds more than cover the cost of holding the event and the subsequent cleanup.

Why pay for tear gas and rubber bullets when you can be monetizing such a popular event?

The town of Amherst is almost equally at fault. Amherst consistently denies student living communities from being built that can actually disperse the growing student population. In 1987, the town of Amherst sowed the seeds of Hobart Hoedown and Blarney Blowout by disallowing a 134-unit student residence from being built at the Cherry Hill Golf Course and squandered $2.2 million (in 1987 dollars) to do so. Today, residents of “Historic” Cushman are again blocking a 700-bed student community from being built. As a result, students are concentrated in the exact areas these outdoor parties always happen: Fearing Street, Hobart Lane, Puffton Village. The community lives in denial that the University will continue to expand and that these very riots are exacerbated by a town that blocks students from actually being able to live in a dispersed area.

UMass officials and year-round residents of Amherst: I feel your pain. You have to realize that students are going to party with or without your permission. Despite a valiant effort, “the Zoo” lingers. Instead of fighting the tides, acknowledge them and guide them: Give students a better alternative to parties. Make money off of it instead of wasting time and resources better suited elsewhere.

Longjie Dai is a Collegian contributor and can be reached at [email protected].