Most days, the student body at the University of Guelph is worthy of their delightful reputation. Students smile as they hold doors for others, halt busses should they realize someone has been left behind, and many spend their free time volunteering for a humanitarian or environmental cause not for academic credit nor to boast about their accomplishments, but simply because they care. What a pleasant, humble and approachable bunch we tend to be…at least while the sun is still shining.

It’s when day becomes night that a strange phenomena begins to override the gentle aura of the laid back student crowd and an ensemble of inner demons begin to dance an obnoxious, angry, and often destructive jive throughout the streets of downtown Guelph. You know what we’re talking about. It’s past midnight on a Friday night and you find yourself walking across the city. Your sober self becomes instantly overtaken by a particular sense of discomfort as you begin to observe the environment around you. Expletives and often downright offensive language absorbs public conversation. And yelling in aggressively high-pitched tones has become the required method to carry out such dialogue. Barefooted girls stumble with high heels in hand, wandering with no apparent sense of direction, while guys push and shove and often wind up being surrounded by cop cars. If you’re really lucky, you might witness the routine vomiting that occurs on nearly every street corner, after the night of partying comes to a close with wolfing down late night Chinese food a little bit too fast. It’s simply a mess.

Maybe you are thinking that we are overreacting. After all, Guelph is known to be a student town, and with that comes an expectation that things are bound to get a little rowdy at times. But this is beyond some student fun and youthful indulgence. It’s gotten to the point that residents of the downtown core avoid going outside during some nights because they feel overwhelmed with anxiety, panic, and worst of all, a fear of being unsafe. For a student community that appears to be nothing but friendly and inviting by day, these kinds of uneasy sentiments are unacceptable, regardless of what time of day it may be.

To all of those who customarily enjoy wild, hazy nights of drinking downtown, consider the following. University is a time to socialize and it is perfectly acceptable to party and dance the nights away. But is it worth throwing away your self-respect to satisfy a pack of raving, inebriated and obnoxious students because it appears to be the normal Friday night thing to do? University is also a time for growth. It’s a time to mature, a time to develop, and a time to gain the skills and confidence that is needed to become a leader. It’s a time of great learning in terms of your field of study, but also, and arguably more so, it’s a time of great learning to come to know yourself and what constitutes your character.

With this in mind, the Ontarion urges its readers to behave faithfully to themselves and their principles regardless blood alcohol level and think about how actions impact others, even after a few drinks. This isn’t a puritanical message by any means. Drink and enjoy downtown establishments if that is what you like to do. Just try to do it with a modicum of respect for those around you. And next time you go out, leave out the sour ingredient of peer pressure from your cocktail mix, and replace it with a tasty sip of self-control instead.

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