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http://www.udreview.com/udpd-steps-up-tailgate-regulation-1.2641368 I love reading about how my alma matter has turned into a fascist police state where no students are allowed to have fun. J-walkers and tailgaters get punished, yet that same weekend three students were robbed by gun point and the UD police didn't give a damn because they don't make money off of them like they do fining students over ridiculous reasons. University of Delaware was once a great school, with lots of uniqe and great things about it. But in the school's singleminded attempt to kill off the party scene so that UD will be seen as a serious Public Ivy academic school, they've curtailed the freedom of their young adults to explore their boundaries, create fun memories that they'll laugh about when they're middle-aged and sitting in an office, and meet people in situations that they might otherwise never have met. College tailgating is a time-honored tradition, and gives people a chance to mingle and meet new friends. These freshmen will grow up, become alumni, and when they come back for Homecoming with their own kids while pumped full of nostalgia for their own glory days, their kids just might be persuaded to come here. It's an ingredient in creating a successful football team, healthy alumni giving, and the next generation of students. By making it so that your students are fearful of tailgating, you have essentially cut your nose to spite your face. Especially when you consider that UD has been talking for such a long time about how they want to move up a football division(with a planned stadium expansion to 30k). Guess what? Big-time football universities also have big-time tailgating. You can't have one without the other, and the fact that UD football attendence is down to 1998 levels pretty much speaks for itself. UD can give prize giveaways all it wants, but until students feel like they can tailgate without an arrest, the kids are going to stay away from the games.

At University of Delaware, there's this tradition that the graduating seniors jump into the water fountains on the last night, before graduation. It's graduation weekend, and I'm spending my night at Kildare's. After getting a slice at Margherita's on Main Street, I walked back up to my parking space at the Trabant Parking Garage. I was ambling up Delaware, then I decided to walk on the pedestrian bridge at Gore to get to the quad between Ewing, Smith and Kirkbride. There's this water fountain there, and low and behold these kids were jumping around the water fountain. They implored me to join them, and a part of me really wanted to... But the other part, the louder part, was telling me that I couldn't do this, because it wasn't my time anymore. Last year, I took part in the UD tradition by jumping around in the water fountain, with a bunch of other people, on South Green by the library. I had that experience. It's a much nicer, bigger fountain and there were at least 12 people in there. I pretended I was on the opening of Friends when we did that. It was a really fun experience, but doing it again would have been just another re-hash of my past. And it would have felt phony, in a way, because I'm not a UD senior, and to take part in the celebrations for the class of 2011 would have just felt wrong, in a way. I'm not even sure I can describe why that would feel wrong, but it just does. I mean no doubt when I graduate from IUP next year I'll be right with the people in celebrating, but to intrude on these seniors celebrating the end of college just didn't really feel right. Because I'm not one of them anymore. It's been fun being back, going to my old college hangouts, but at the same time I just keep feeling like something's different. I thought things would be the same....and the places are, but the people are different, and I'm different. I was walking down Main Street and I ran into this notable party guy from college that I'll call Russ. Dude was BIG into partying, and he was about as close to a real-life Van Wilder as you can imagine. He'd graduated in '08 or '09 and he was still living in Newark when I was a senior, last year. When I chatted with Russ a little bit, he was telling me that he felt old as shit still going to the bars around here, and that this was his last year of still hanging around Newark. There's no real point in him coming out here anymore because of all his friends graduated and moved on. I'm not quite at that point yet, because I still have friends who are going to UD, but...it hit home with me. I mean, I'm still going to go to Newark because I like Kildare's, Deer Park, and Homegrown, but...it's really lost its luster to me. I suppose at some point I'll need to start going to Trolley Square with the rest of the mid-20's to early 30's people. LOL. You ever just have that experience of going back to a place that meant so much to you during a specific period in your life, but it just doesn't hold the same magic it used to hold for you? That's how I feel about University of Delaware right now. It's kinda weird.