Students at the University of Iowa might be taking this whole "top party school" thing a little too far.
Iowa was named the No. 1 party school this year by the Princeton Review. Last year, it achieved similar high honors in the 2012-13 rankings.
The university wasn't happy about the high ranking on the lists and insisted they've made strides to tame binge drinking. But those efforts can only go so far when you're a large state school with a major football program and a tailgating culture and large crowds of intoxicated students on the first game day of the year:
Then you have viral sensations like Samantha Goudie.
When Goudie, a 22-year-old Iowa student was arrested Saturday at 1:21 p.m., she blew a .341, according to a university police report. Which is high enough, according to WebMD, to result in passing out, tremors or memory loss, among other things.
The photo below reportedly shows Goudie getting detained:
Goudie then became a viral sensation by embracing her arrest in tweets about it from the handle @Vodka_Samm (which has since been deleted after gaining 15,000 followers):
"I'm going to get .341 tattooed on me because its so epic."
"Ive gotten so many hate tweets because I was drunk...uh I get good grades sorry for being like every other college student"
She also included a Vine video with the tag "alcoholism":
But really, Goudie should be happy she's alive, considering her level of blood alcohol could've killed her. She'll now be known around campus for this weekend's slew of Internet posts deriving from her @Vodka_Samm alias; she joins the likes of Alexander John Kinzel, a 21-year-old student who was arrested before classes even started on Aug. 9.
Kinzel was picked up after being kicked out of a bar and getting into a fight. He was arrested, blew a .247, and gave police the gem of a line, "Of course I'm drunk, it's Thursday night in Iowa City" -- a quote that achieved brief Internet fame.
So we get it, Iowa, you're a party school. Your Confessions page contains quotes like this:
But as your student newspaper's editorial board put it, these anecdotes gloss over the more dangerous aspects of a few students' passing notoriety:
As for the question of how the viral ascendance of Vodka Samm might affect the University of Iowa's reputation, we're none too concerned. Granted, this story packs a punch on the heels of the Princeton Review's declaration that the UI is the nation's top party school, but the legend of Vodka Samm will fade in short order, as has every Internet phenomenon before her.
What will last, however, is the drinking culture that spawns a flurry of tickets, arrests, and hospital trips on six or seven Saturdays every year. The unfortunate truth is that Vodka Samm isn’t the problem but merely a symptom.
So please, Iowa, don't hurt yourselves trying to live up to your party school reputation.
Related
Before You Go
