This article was contributed by Kate Kight

Around 8 p.m. on any given Friday or Saturday night, something on campus shifts subtly. The drudgery of classes is thrown off and we all look forward to forgetting the upcoming work we have to do. However, we also forget something else as a campus when we head out to party: The party atmosphere at Whitman is disjoined from the socially conscious daytime student body.

This phenomenon isn’t isolated to Whitman: colleges across the country are struggling to rectify social life with social justice. A fraternity at Yale University was suspended for screaming, “No means yes!” around the campus. I think we can safely assume these aren’t ignorant students: so what could have driven some of the most intelligent students in America to willfully harm their campuses?

Although these incidents occur with a higher propensity in Greek systems, it is unfair to solely blame these institutions, for the problem runs much deeper than that. The problem lies in the party culture itself, the idea that the combination of alcohol and dance music means we have the right to ignore propriety. The idea that limiting party themes to ones that are “politically correct” defeats the freedom of Friday nights.

As we can see from Yale’s example, though, freedom does not give the right to support deeply sexist and offensives stereotypes. Freedom doesn’t mean one is able to grab the nearest hottie on the dance floor without asking. Rather, Friday nights should be a time when every student on the campus has the freedom to celebrate the weekend safely. Where women can go to a party without being treated as objects, where members of the queer community can feel respected by everyone.

The hard truth is that the current party culture at Whitman and around the country doesn’t provide this safe space for women or homosexuals or anyone. We all have aspects of ourselves we are self-conscious about, and as a safe community we should each respect this. So next time the Greek system throws a party that alienates a group on campus, or a sports team forces a member to do something he or she isn’t ready for or an individual grabs you on the dance floor without your consent, think about the campus you want to live on. The flip side of the hard truth of this campus is that we are the ones who can change it. We all know the greatest parties: the ones we feel great about all the next week: are the ones that include us, not as sex objects or stereotypes, but as individuals with something real to contribute.