Social life snubbed at University of Chicago

The Associated PressThe Associated PressCHICAGO -- When you're walking in the footsteps of 64 Nobel Prize winners, who needs to party? As another bleak and bitter Chicago winter draws near for the scholars in the university's Gothic quads, U. of C administrators find themselves in the unusual position of suggesting that the students lighten up. When the administrators suggest that students occasionally congregate somewhere other than the library, many students scoff. "Social life and party status are often measured in gallons of beer," freshman Alex Reponen said. "I think U. of C students find better things to do." With its 3,500 undergraduates and 6,500 grad students, the 104-year-old university is the antithesis of a party school: Students score an average of 1,350 on the Scholastic Achievement Test; this year's national average was 910. In addition, more than 90 percent of undergraduates go on to graduate school. The center of campus life is the Joseph Regenstein Library -- "The Reg." No wonder eyebrows were raised when the university issued a pamphlet showing The Reg branded with a circle-and-slash emblem.The pamphlet offered such suggestions for an augmented social life as "sitting around a fireplace and reading" and "watching your favorite TV program with friends." The school has opened up a Starbucks coffee house and let Barnes & Noble take over the bookstore, and even offered free pizza to attract larger crowds to football games. "We need to bring some energy to campus," senior Italo Zanzi said. "I think that's why we lose a lot of people to Harvard, Penn and Northwestern, where students have more fun, it seems."