As I left Denver on Sunday, I couldn’t wait to get back to school. After my favorite Fall Quarter to date, I was anxious to return to school. Already, the novelty has passed. I’ve had my first Cafe Ambrosia Chai, Norris University Center Crepe and Keg Big Cup of 2008. Now the grim reality is sinking in: We’re about to endure another Winter Quarter at Northwestern University.
Winter Quarter at NU is like the awkward middle child of the Quarter family. He doesn’t have much of anything to call his own. His older brother, Fall Quarter, brags the glory of New Student Week, Halloween celebrations, Thanksgiving feasts and a solid month of beach weather. The younger brother, Spring Quarter, is the popular, energetic child who brings about Dillo Day, spring break, studying on the beach and a sunny sense of optimism that infiltrates our student body. Winter Quarter makes us bitter.
This doesn’t have to be the case. Though he is experiencing Middle Child Syndrome of the worst degree, Winter Quarter could acquire a little personality to ease his grim disposition. In fact, many other universities find ways to spice up their winters.
The winters at Michigan Technological University are worse than ours, but students celebrate a notorious Winter Carnival every year. During this weeklong celebration, teams compete in such wintery battles as broomball, curling, human sled dog racing, ice sculpting, ice bowling, and beard-growing competitions. They have earned several Guinness World Records, including the world’s largest group snow angel and largest snowball fight.
Dartmouth College throws a Winter Carnival that is one part competition, two parts party. Events include ski competitions, a polar bear swim (i.e. swimming in a freezing cold lake), a drag ball and a snow sculpture contest, culminating in a weekend of infamous parties. Before the administration put the kibosh on it in 2000, students embraced the traditional Keg Jump, in which they attempted to jump over a line of kegs in ice skates.
Finally, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, students break off into teams and compete in attempts to win the highly-contested Snow Cup. Their week is complete with snow kiting, snowman building, ice golfing and broomball, all culminating in the Snow Ball, beer included.
We should give Winter Quarter some middle child therapy. Why don’t we start a Winter Carnival to rival the glory of the other quarters? We may not be ready to tackle the Keg Jump, but how about a polar bear plunge into Lake Michigan and broomball on the frozen lagoon, all culminating in a campus-wide Snow Ball in the Louis Room? Now that’s a Winter Quarter.
Medill junior Meredith Laitos can be reached at [email protected].
