Friday nights this semester: doing stats homework until 10 pm, ordering cheeseless pizza, staying up until 3:30 trying to beat Super Mario 3, making vegan Sundaes and sitting at the RA desk, then blasting really bad music in my room until I get multiple noise complaints. These are actual nights, actual stories of nothing to do on campus. While I applaud CCLA and other campus organizations for having a greater variety of events this semester, there just aren’t enough events to fill the weekend calendar.

When I think back to last year, I remember every Friday and Saturday there were at least two parties going on on Pomona’s campus, as well as a couple of 5-C parties. This year, however, there have been at least a few nights when there weren’t any parties at all. While I personally don’t want to party every night anyway, I still find the lack of dances and parties somewhat depressing.

For people who do want to drink and party, not having campus-wide parties can make drinking an even bigger problem, as students who want to drink will still drink, even with nowhere to go. Private parties get longer, bigger and louder when there are no CCLA parties going on, and they become more of a problem in the residence halls. When there are campus-wide parties going on in Eversole or in Smith Campus Center, they don’t bother residents who don’t want to party.

On one particularly dead weekend night, one of my friends hosted a party for her Orientation Adventure group. Rather than just having a bunch of friends get together and spend time together, she found dozens of people she didn’t know on her doorstep. It was one thing to welcome friends of friends, but when seven random Pitzer students stopped by because they "heard there was a party," things got a little ridiculous.

Again this past Friday night, there were no Pomona parties. My solution to this was to blast really bad music as loudly as possible and dance around with my friends. My apologies to the entirety of South Campus that had to listen to my Britney Spears and Ace of Base MP3s, but there really wasn’t anything to do! When the RA finally came by to tell us he’d received numerous noise complaints, he also mentioned another party in the dorm, where the hosts were trying to keep everything in the rooms and comply with college policy, but there were just too many people.

In addition to having more parties, it would be beneficial to have a variety of activities. Plenty of people’s idea of a good time on a weekend is not to go out, get drunk, and dance, and I think that it is important for CCLA and other campus groups to take this into account when planning the college’s social calendar. In terms of different programming, this year has been somewhat impressive. I was especially happy to see RHS’s programming at the close of substance-free opening. Last year, people wishing to avoid drunken revelry had to hide out in their rooms or get off campus completely; this year, there were several different activities planned as an alternative.

My biggest suggestion for whoever’s out there planning parties is costume parties and theme parties. While some themes are definitely more appropriate for the intoxicated crowd ("Bathroom Party" or "Naked Party" for example), when everyone’s dressed up and acting silly, it makes a simple party much more of an event. Friends can spend time brainstorming what to wear and helping each other get dressed as euro trash or ‘80s punk rockers. One of the best things about costume and theme parties is that they can be enjoyed both by people who are drinking and by those who are not. OK, maybe I’m just a sucker for dressing in weird clothes, but I think that what Pomona really needs is more costume parties.

It seems that so many of the campus-wide parties that do occur at Pomona are interchangeable. They’re either in Eversole or The Smith Campus Center and consist of either too many or not enough people dancing and always have the same songs. Any sort of party that breaks up that theme, whether it’s holding SYR at Seaver or adding the sketchy element that comes with the lei party is quite welcome. Variety is great, whether it’s changing the locale of a party, or planning totally different events, such as a giant game of laser tag.

Pomona students definitely possess the creativity and planning to make this campus a great place to be on the weekend. I’m sure the people on CCLA (and the other campus groups that have been planning these events) are those most dedicated to this goal. This year, while certain parties have been especially memorable thus far, there just isn’t enough to do. As proud as I am of the accomplishment, I’d prefer not to spend another Friday night fighting the evil forces of King Koopa.