Junior Weekend leave issue impacts Corps

By Justin Fitzgerald
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Drinking, rowdy parties, and, often, trouble notoriously highlight one particular weekend in April every year for the Norwich community. Cadets and civilian students have been suspended, expelled, arrested, hospitalized, and, tragically, people have even lost their lives during the extreme partying often associated with what is known as Junior Weekend.

On Monday, March 1, a meeting was held in White Chapel for all upperclass cadets.

“Generally, the meeting was about the regimental commander wanting to talk about the leave policy for this upcoming junior weekend, specifically for sophomores and freshmen,” said Matt Schade, 21, a junior history major from Basking Ridge, N.J., explaining that, “at this point his plan is to cancel their leave and allow leave for juniors and seniors.

“Mainly, his primary rationale was just to avoid any kind of serious trouble that might come out of the weekend as a precautionary measure, especially with what happened last year with a cadet dying,” Schade said.

“Basically, [the chain of command] thinks that the problem is that sophomores and freshmen are not mature enough to make sound decisions, and they just want to go out and get drunk and high,” said John Brittingham, 19, a sophomore peace, war and diplomacy major from White Plains, N.Y. “They don’t trust that we hold ourselves to a high enough standard.”

Every class has its bad apples, and keeping people on campus, according to Brittingham, is not solving a problem.

“They are not solving a problem; they are trying to reduce the risk factor by denying us leave and denying the freshmen leave,” Brittingham said. “But the juniors and seniors still have the same risk level.”

The solution to this problem will not be an easy one, according to Dan Huffman, 21, a senior history major and 2nd Battalion Commander from Prattville, Ala. “We are trying to plan a fun weekend that helps people see that you do not have to go off campus to have fun. We are trying to provide activities on campus that you cannot find off campus.”

Ricky Molina is the S-5 Cadet Major in charge of activities and student recreation who will be planning some events for Junior Weekend.

“If it turns out that they, indeed, have to stay on campus, what we are planning is not only for them to stay on campus, but we are planning to keep everyone on campus as much as we can with activities,” said Molina, 22, a senior business management major from Roswell, N.M. “Friday night, we've got a host of things planned right after the actual march down for the juniors.”

Many Norwich students traditionally spend a lot of money on this particular weekend. If some of those people do not have leave, they may be losing money.

“I already have my girlfriend flying up. I already paid for her plane ticket. Obviously, if I have to stay here, she is going to stay in my room with me, and my roommate and his date,” Brittingham said. “It throws my plans off a little bit, and, obviously, my ticket is non-refundable for her.”

Freshmen and sophomores look forward to this weekend just as much as juniors do.

“The freshmen have been waiting the whole year for this one event. We have worked so hard for it. It has been a goal in the back of our mind: a certain point in time that we are looking forward to,” said Krista Barajas, 20, a freshman criminal justice major from San Antonio, Tex. “We were told about junior ring weekend from the beginning; we have been planning for it for a while now.”

The staff is not planning to have just another boring weekend for those who might have to stay, according to Molina.

Events that he is trying to get on campus for this Junior Weekend include a beer tent on the Upper Parade Ground for people 21 years and older, an outdoor movie, battle of the bands, and, of course, the ball.

“I don’t think there is going to be a better solution for this, but if we had to pick, I would say they need to schedule a lot of things,” Barajas said. “A band in Shapiro or something, and we can stay there the entire night and wear civilian clothes and hang out.

“There would have to be free food, as well, play a movie later on; they can also have activities, climb the wall, just different things all night long. Basically, it would be an all-night party,” Barajas said.

If leave is canceled, people may just try to go out and do their own activities, anyway.

“If they do make the decision to cancel leave, they have to be ready for how angry people are going to be and the fact that they are going to try and beat the system. There is going to be a lot of sneaking around, and people are going to try and drink on campus,” Barajas said. “I think it’s just going to cause a lot more problems than it would if you just let us leave.”

This is not meant to be a punishment for the freshmen and sophomore classes, according to Huffman. “Too many people are assuming that we are trying to punish the sophomore and freshman classes. That is not the idea behind it,” he said. “The idea is to make this weekend special for the juniors while having fun and being safe.”

Students tend to sink a lot of money into Junior Weekend. According to Rosemary Cogan, 19, a sophomore criminal justice and peace war and diplomacy major from Lynn, Mass., said she is not going to be very upset if she cannot leave campus. She and her friends have already put a down payment on a condo, but if they get that money back it will not be such a big deal, she said.

“If they are going to make a decision like this, they need to make it quick and stick with it, because if we need to cancel reservations, we need to do it now,” Barajas said.

The Cadet Colonel declined to comment for this story.

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