TMoney2007,

I think you've got cause and effect backwards (or at least it's a mutual interaction). If Reslife weren't openly hostile to SB, then SB might get more participants who didn't already have a "**** Reslife" attitude.

Guess what, I was there, and speaking from my personal experience, there was NO HOSTILITY TOWARDS BONFIRE FROM RESLIFE. The staff of the halls is just in a precarious position while the litigation is going on. Many people shyed away from dealing with bonfire issues because they didn't know how to deal with it. I did a bulletin board on bonfire and it got an award. So once again, I tell you, there is NO HOSTILITY TOWARDS BONFIRE FROM RESLIFE.

The guys that did it in Walton Hall were a huge pain in the ass, and when the staff tried to bring it in so that we could have some semblance of order, they played the bonfire victim card and acted like we were persecuting them because of their involvement in bonfire.

In reality, and this is the god's honest truth, they got in trouble because THEY BROKE THE RULES AND WERE FREAKING STUPID ABOUT IT.

There is not a rule in the book that you cannot get away with breaking if you are smart about it (and this is coming from an RA) but they just were: A) not smart enough to keep it hidden, or B) blatantly broke them because they thought it was cool (probably because of their skewed view of what bonfire means).

So quit playing the freaking victim guys, and clean up your own crap. Realize that your problems with reslife are noones fault but your own because of your inablility to work within a system, and your lack of desire to actually understand the position that reslife is in due to the continued bonfire litigations.

We wrote up non-bonfire people for breaking the rules just as much as we did bonfire people, the bonfire people just brought it on themselves more often.

Ah ok, I don't know you then, but you probably knew my friend Stacy. (I THINK her last name was Ferguson. It's been a while.)

Looks like the ol' forum has a new scapegoat everybody looooves to hate...hi TMoney!

Looks like Walton is now THE bonfire people

while living in FHK we did all in our power to work with the RAs and reslife. but it did seem that A LOT of the time they were gunning for us, it has gotten a lot better over time, but when HDs changed for the first time after 99, We faught a HARD uphill battle. Half the RAs were for it (not publicly, which is what is the most annoying part, the fact that your position say "DO NOT SUPPORT BONFIRE", and that was told to me by an RA.) The ones that were against it were blatant, and @$$e$ in general.

Regardless of whether or not it's fair that Walton's actions represent all of Bonfire, it is true. Ever heard the old saying "you're only as strong as your weakest link"?

Guys, reslife has NEVER liked Bonfire. Reslife will not like it if they were the most model citizens the world had ever seen. From '98 to '01 in Walton we were pretty lucky as neither of the RDs cared much what reslife thought and most of the RAs didn't either. While I'm certainly not advocated being jerks in the dorm for no reason, you aren't going to win over Ron Sasse no matter what you do.

TMoney2007,

I don't doubt your personal experience, but keep in mind that you're arguing with people who didn't live in Walton.

I made no claims that this extended to all bonfire people, but you should know that one of the dorms that is seen as the center of off campus bonfire on northside is full of people that are disgracing the tradition.

Like I said, most people don't or refuse to understand the position that the university is in when it comes to bonfire (this includes many ra's). I haven't got the time to explain it again, but I'm sure there are many among you that could. The RA's that aren't smart enough to understand that they aren't being told to be anti-bonfire don't do a very good job. But the majority of the people that I always heard complain about student bonfire/reslife relations were only playing the victim because they believe that they had the right to blatantly break the rules and destroy the hall.

Is blind hatred for authority one of the virtues that bonfire is supposed to teach? I don't think it is. You should know that this is what student bonfire in walton hall represents.

Make it so that the bonfire guys in walton hall act like people that others would want to join and follow and you will get a huge turnout. The residents in that hall are dying for a unifying element but the representatives of bonfire in the hall conduct themselves like idiots, so the residents stay away in droves.

PS: I know you guys aren't in walton, but you obviously have an interest in making student bonfire a resounding success, and I'm just trying to give you an outsiders opinion to help you guys get the aire of legitimacy that you deserve.

[This message has been edited by TMoney2007 (edited 11/12/2006 8:34p).]