Maryland Ranks High

[420AM&PM]

Maryland's New Title As "'No. 1 Counterculture School' Leaves Some to Question Campus Reputation

Thirty years ago, College Park students were more likely to find shops selling bongs and rolling paper than burritos or Starbucks coffee, and McKeldin Mall was often dotted with long-haired hippies conducting hazy smoke-ins rather than bikini-clad girls getting suntans.

But according to High Times monthly magazine -- the weed-smokers' bible -- the university may not be so far behind those free-love days of puff-puff-pass with its recent designation as the No. 1 counterculture school in the nation. High Times doesn't use the tired old standard of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, however: The critical factor in the ranking decision was last semester's ballot referendum that asked students whether the university should loosen penalties for marijuana possession on the campus.

For sophomores Matt Zernhelt and Stacia Cosner, and 66 percent of student voters, the answer was a resounding yes. In its "Guide to Higher Education," High Times specifically recognized the activism of Zernhelt, president of the campus' National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws and Cosner, president of the campus' Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, in their quest to lessen the university's punishments for students caught with marijuana.

Their efforts catapulted the university to the top of High Times' annual college list, which this year focused on activist campuses but has in past years ranked schools in order of stoner-ness. More openly cannabis-loving colleges -- such as the University of Missouri, Columbia and the University of Colorado, Boulder -- were overshadowed as Maryland received top honors.

"[The campus policy is] something that needs to be changed," Cosner said. "It's not just a random case we cook up because we're stoners."

But, to other students, that's exactly what the High Times honor demonstrates -- merely another indication of Maryland's Princeton Review-ranked status as a party school and a lack of true counterculture behavior.

"'Counterculture' used to mean you went against the trend; you were political, you didn't just do everything you saw on TV or what people told you was cool," said Daniel Lewkowicz, a junior history major and president of the campus group Community Roots. "Basically what I see at Maryland is exactly what I see on MTV ... when we're smoking, it's not like we're having political debates. We're smoking weed so that we can get high -- it has nothing to do with anything more [than that]."

In the 1960s, the university was rocked by students in Vietnam War or civil rights protests, and the student body was so dedicated to their causes that hundreds stripped nude en-masse on Route 1, university archivist Anne Turkos said.

Recently, however, that atmosphere has changed drastically, she added.

"When I think of a school like Berkeley, I think of hippies and counterculture and Haight-Ashbury and that whole atmosphere," Turkos said. "I think a lot of that was true here -- hippies hanging out at the mall and doing their thing. But I don't see it as predominantly part of the culture here anymore."

Instead, any student activism has been overshadowed by Maryland's omnipresent reputation as a party school, Lewkowicz said.

"When is Budweiser going to list us as something? Are we the Alcoholics Anonymous school?" he said. "[The High Times article] is something you'll giggle at and look at and say, 'Oh, yes, that is Maryland, isn't it?' But is it something to be proud of?"

Nevertheless, Cosner believes other aspects of student behavior -- not the marijuana proposal -- lower the reputation of the campus.

"What contributes to our image as a party school is our riots and outlandish behavior at sporting events," she said. "This is based on activism, not on partying."

Although Zernhelt does not think the counterculture moniker applies to the whole campus, he is proud that his year of hard work will live on in fame, he said.

"Even though we're just small groups on campus ... I think we care enough to balance out the apathetic," he said. "Not a large percentage of us are counterculture kids -- like we have a lot of frat kids, which is cool, do what you want to do -- but those who do see themselves as counterculture kids are doing what they have to do, too."


HAZY RANKING

With an emphasis on activism, High Times magazine ranked pot-friendly schools.

1. MARYLAND

2. University of California, Santa Barbara

3. Missouri

4. Colorado

5. Central Florida

6. Rhode Island

7. SUNY New Paltz

8. McGill University, Montreal

9. Florida State

10. Brown University



Newshawk: 420Am&Pm - 420Times.com
Source: Diamondback, The (U of MD Edu)
Pubdate: Thu, 07 Sep 2006
Author: Roxana Hadadi
Copyright: 2006 Diamondback
Contact: opinion@dbk.umd.edu
Website: The Diamondback