Muleskinner

Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Photo Illustration by Stephanie Flippin

For any student who has seen movies such as "Old School," "Animal House" or "Van Wilder," it may seem like CMSU is lacking a true party scene. Most students walk to Pine Street on Thursday nights instead of hosting or attending an off-campus party. Four students are trying to change that.

Calling themselves "The CMSU Party Guide Team," these Central Missouri seniors are trying to spread the word that there's more to life than Pine Street.

Although the team refused to give their names, they say it's not for secrecy purposes but more about people "seeing the site in its own entity and not associating it with a certain group of guys." Instead, the founder gave only one name, Mitch.

"Pine Street is great," Mitch said, "but you can miss out on so many experiences when all you do is go downtown. It's about the one or two times you go to that amazing party and the stories you have afterward."

Mitch and his fellow "Party Guide Team" members use their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/cmsupartyguide) to promote not only parties around town, but also athletic events, tailgating, rush week and Homecoming.

"Look at it this way; how many students actually check their MuleMail or the campus events calendar every day?" Mitch asked. "Most people do check their MySpace profile every day. The site is about drawing from all college experiences. It's not just about drinking."

But what about drinking? Most parties are synonymous with alcohol, and this Web site that advertises for parties, also maintains a clear stance on drinking issues.

"The only caution that I would give to the people who host these parties is to know the law," said Kim Drake, Public Safety officer. "Most people don't know that selling alcohol to a minor, including paying for a cup or a keg, is a felony. By promoting and advertising to many students, the likelihood that the party will get out of hand increases."

"We won't promote drinking, but we don't want to be your parents either," Mitch said. "Drinking is a fact of college, and we encourage people to make smart choices."

The "Party Guide Team" first came up with the idea of a party promotion Web site about a year ago, but it wasn't until this summer when the idea became a reality.

"We decided to use MySpace because we weren't as familiar with other sites like Facebook," said Mitch. "It's also a lot easier to recruit people from MySpace, especially from community colleges, the Air Force base, and surrounding areas."

Continued...

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