Many Northwestern students will put down their books this weekend and pick up beer bottles, but not everyone plans to partake in the unofficial drinking of Dillo Day. Some who choose not to drink will spend the day helping those who do, while others plan to leave altogether.
Communication junior Holly Childers said she will spend Saturday working with her sorority’s risk management team, taking care of members who may become ill.
“I know that I can’t, in a day, persuade others to my views, (but) I’m not going to ignore them in the meantime,” said Childers, who opposes drinking in excess.
Five residents in the Healthy Living Unit of Foster-Walker Complex will be volunteering to work as security monitors in dorms on North Campus, said Meghann Ostertag, HLU president. They will contact the appropriate authorities if necessary, the Weinberg sophomore said.
“I would rather dedicate seven hours of my time and not end up with somebody hurt,” said Ostertag, adding later that working Saturday night won’t be so bad. “Drunk people are fun to watch … it should be entertaining.”
Karen Perry, a transfer student, said she will not be staying on campus to experience her first Dillo Day. The Weinberg sophomore said she would rather spend the holiday weekend with her family in Aurora, Ill.
“When I first heard about Dillo Day, it kind of came as a surprise … (I thought), ‘they actually do this? The school actually allows this?'” she said. “Sexual assault is high on this day, people go to the hospital for drinking and I’m like, ‘does this seem crazy to anyone else but me?'”
Malika Bilal also plans to head home for the weekend. Bilal, a Muslim who does not drink for religious reasons, said this year’s bands are not worth watching. She wasn’t on campus for Dillo Day last year, but said her Muslim friends told her the event was “awful,” explaining that students were vomiting outside of dorms.
“Maybe the concept of it at first was really great,” said Bilal, a Medill sophomore. “But I think it’s unfortunate that the school is gathered around getting drunk.”
Medill junior Andrea Gusty said she has never attended Dillo Day and, in essence, boycotts it. Mayfest events, intended to raise awareness about Native Americans, are linked inappropriately to drinking in excess, she said.
“I just try to stay away from alcohol as much as I can because I see what it has done to my family and to the rest of the people in my village where I grew up,” said Gusty, who is Yup’ik Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian. “And I definitely don’t believe in Dillo Day being associated with Native Americans when we have had such a problem with alcohol. It’s kind of rubbing our nose in it.”
Gusty, who is in Montana with Medill’s Teaching Media program, said she plans to program events for Dillo Day next year to raise awareness about her culture.
Mike Schuetz, a Campus Crusade for Christ member, said he had a great time without alcohol at last year’s Dillo Day. He said Christians who don’t drink should not isolate themselves.
“If you like music it’s just great to go listen to live music with your friends,” he said.
But Schuetz, who said he will not drink until he is 21, said he is concerned about students abusing alcohol on Dillo Day. The Weinberg sophomore said he saw one of his friends taken to the hospital on a stretcher at last year’s event.
“In some ways it is a dark day on campus,” Schuetz said. “It’s sad to see so many people get totally obliterated.”
Childers, a member of campus religious group Rejoice in Jesus, agreed.
“It’s a lot of short-sighted fun,” she said. “People go to the hospital, people get raped — and people set themselves up for that. That’s not wise.”
