I’ve loved writing for The Daily this quarter. The flattering and hateful e-mails, letters to the editor and online comments always spice up my day. With that said, there are still a few final thoughts I’d like to share regarding this fine institution and its inhabitants.

First, I’d like to see Northwestern follow in the path of Brown and Georgetown by adding a picture to its application. Beyond the fact that my frat brothers and I would appreciate seeing some cute freshmen next year, there actually may be a benefit to seeking out attractive applicants for the school. Because I don’t want to sound shallow, I’ll let my roommate’s Intro to Psych textbook do the talking, “Physical beauty is important in just about every interpersonal context. Beautiful people have more friends, more dates, more sex, and more fun than the rest of us do, and they can even expect to earn 10 percent more money over the courses of their lives.” With all else equal in two applicants, why not let looks be the decider; they tend to be in the real world anyway.

I’d also like to be able to find whole milk on this campus. Whether in my tea, cereal or with cookies, I find whole milk to be irreplaceably delicious and coincidentally impossible to locate at any NU cuisine location. It can’t be a demand issue. The dining halls are filled with strange assortments of vegan pseudo-meat that I’m convinced no one ever eats. While in the dining hall, I’ve asked my friends why there is no whole milk and they sip their high-fructose-corn-syrup-concentrated sodas, bite into their pizzas and french fries, and tell me that whole milk is unhealthy. I’m 18, thus I know everything. So please NU, let me make my own decisions regarding my milk intake.

I’d also like to see more initiative on our generation’s part to do things besides video games and Facebook (spring columnist apps are now available). In the last 24 hours, my roommate, along with nearly one million other gamers, have logged online to play Halo 3. Checking his gamer stats, I learned he played 1,300 online games of Halo since he got it Fall Quarter, equating to nine days of continuous play. That’s one person playing one game. Consider the millions of other gamers and the 1.5 billion visits to Facebook every day and it adds up to a tremendous opportunity cost for our generation in the form of creative output and activity.

I’d also like to see more realistic drinking policies on this campus. The administration’s see no evil, hear no evil policy is ridiculous and does nothing but facilitate binge drinking in the shadows. The university should embrace the cultural realities of drinking. If we want to keep students out of the emergency room, let them get beers with professors in Norris over talks of politics and life on Friday nights, instead of scaring them into Bobb to pregame with handles of Skol for their night of cruising off-campus parties.

Finally, I’d like to see a more intellectual student body. I fear that everyone gets so caught up in their orgo textbooks, theater productions and Monday Keg nights that they overlook what is happening in the world. Remember that there is a fine line between stupidity and ignorance. The former is unavoidable but the latter is inexcusable. Read, write, listen, challenge, and always be skeptical. That wraps up my career as your 2008 Winter Friday columnist. Gaudeamus igitur.