Party school hangover

Even as bar owners say declining enrollment presents increased challenges for Carbondale nightlife, one professor who coordinates university marketing campaigns said SIUC would need to work harder to shed its party school image.

Terry Clark, chairperson of the university’s marketing department, said a man he met on Chicago’s Navy Pier made the connection when Clark told him he was from Carbondale.

“We have that reputation because other people made the reputation for us and we weren’t doing anything about it,” Clark said. “I feel that SIU is a bit like Rip Van Winkle: It’s woken up after a long sleep and realized the world has changed.”

The university was absent from Princeton Review’s list of the top 25 party schools this year, but the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana weighed in at No. 16.
SIUC first appeared on Playboy Magazine’s top 10 party school list in 1987, but has not made the list since 2006.

Parting the university from the party school image is one of Clark’s goals as he leads Barking Dawg Productions, a team of marketing students that produce television and radio advertisements for the university.

Clark said the university does not benefit from allowing prospective students to picture drunken riots when they are looking for a school that would offer them a quality education for the best price.

Lately, Barking Dawg’s efforts to replace the party school image have been limited because of a small budget, he said. Though a university this size should budget at least $2 million for marketing, Barking Dawg makes do with $500,000, he said.

Since the Halloween 2000 riot on the Strip, police, university and city officials have taken measures, such as banning keg sales and forcing bars on the Strip to close during Halloween, to crack down on partying. For Carbondale bar owners such as Jeff Formentini, the crackdown makes staying in business more of a challenge now that restrictions on alcohol consumption are in place during Halloween.

“It kind of hurts more than it helps,” said Formentini, owner of Key West Lounge.

Formentini said he has become more reliant on other occasions that bring people to town, such as Homecoming and various SIU Alumni Association events.

Brian Woodruff, manager of Sidetracks Bar and Grille, said the students’ attitude towards partying on the Strip has changed since the crackdowns began. Instead of people going out in the early evening, they tend to show up around midnight, he said.

Woodruff said the crackdown is not the only factor hurting business. The decrease in enrollment at SIUC means fewer students are making their way down the Strip than in years past, he said.

The university’s enrollment peaked in 1991 with 24,869 students. Fewer than 21,000 enrolled in fall 2008, according to university records.

“There are enough bars in this town that if you don’t have a sufficient amount of kids, it’s hard for everybody to get full,” he said.

Formentini said a boost in enrollment could have a positive effect on his business even though Key West is not on the Strip.

 “Anything (the university) can do to get more students here would help,” he said. “We don’t get that many students over here because we’re kind of out of the way, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get them in the future.”

Chris Wissmann, editor of the Carbondale Nightlife newspaper, said the number of businesses on the Strip has declined since 2000 and the enrollment plunge. He said the smaller selection of clubs has given people reason to not to come to Carbondale even though there is a good music scene.

A member of the City Council, Wissmann said the city should reconsider opening the Strip for Halloween, but not as an incentive to boost enrollment.

“It depends on how you do it,” he said. “We don’t want people drinking themselves out of the university.”

Wissmann said the university should be advertised as a place where students can get an education while also enjoying the nightlife and surrounding natural beauty, such as Thompson Woods, Lake on the Campus or Giant City State Park.

Crystal Gonzalez, a freshman from Chicago studying psychology, said her high school teachers told her SIUC was a party school. But upon her arrival in Carbondale, Gonzalez discovered that was not true, she said.

Gonzalez said she came to Carbondale to get away from Chicago. Though she does not go to the Strip on weekend, she finds the campus scenery a relief, she said.

“You can go anywhere without worrying about violence,” Gonzalez said. “You just have to watch out for drunk people over the weekend.”

But inebriated students are nothing unique to SIUC, said Ben Harbaugh, a sophomore from Hume studying zoology. He said partying in Carbondale is no wilder than any other college town, though people might be more accepting.

“I personally got kicked out of a frat party at the U of I because I didn’t know a guy,” he said. “People can still come to Carbondale and have a good time.”

Elizabeth Giwa, a junior from Country Club Hills studying marketing, said she thinks the university would benefit from promoting its strong academic points.

“Education is the main reason we’re here,” she said. “Everything else just follows.”

Daily Egyptian reporter Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 263 or barton.lorimor@siude.com.