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Recently, the Miami Student ran an op-ed piece on how Miami University students should embrace the stereotype of Miami (Oxford) being an elitist campus.

From reading the article, it’s easy to see that the foundations of that article are questionable at best. Yes, many students dub Miami “J. Crew U” and also enjoy poking fun at the plethora of jackets from the North Face, Sperry Top-Siders, and pairs of Uggs spotted on campus. But since when have other students claimed Miami students are better than them? More articulate? More mature? I’ve yet to hear those stereotypes.

Being from Southwest Ohio, I have plenty of friends who attend Miami and I understand that it is a fine institution. However, to brush aside Ohio University along with Kent State and Eastern Kentucky “for obvious reasons” is wacky. I’d like to know what exactly those “obvious reasons” are.

From my experience, Ohio University is a pretty good school. However, the Post at OU stooped to Miami’s level by publishing a rebuttal to the op-ed piece.

In the letter to the Post, the writer titles his letter: OU Students Don’t Have to Flaunt School Pride. He then goes onto flaunt school pride.

It’s not a big deal, school pride is meant to be flaunted. People wouldn’t wear school-colored T-shirts with school names plastered across the chest were it not for school pride. If you have school pride, why wouldn’t you want to show it? I know I enjoy talking about how great my school is and it makes me proud to be a Bobcat.

I think the giant contradiction that is this letter and the reaction to the Student article I’ve seen from many of my classmates reflects poorly on OU students.

In the letter, the writer calls OU students “fun-loving, happy-go-lucky party-goers” and then mentions the national attention that surrounds the Athens Halloween celebration.

When I think of “happy-go-lucky” people, I think of people who enjoy living life to its fullest, trying new things, and making new memories. They enjoy everything life has to offer (extra emphasis on “everything”). However, when I think of the typical OU student, I don’t see a happy-go-lucky person. Each weekend, the only question is: Which bar am I going to tonight? People claim they had a good night when they don’t remember it.

The party school reputation, in my opinion, has plagued OU. When I hear the girl at the other end of the table at the dining hall talk about how she chose to come to school here because it’s a great party school; when I see the packs of scantily-clad women and fashionably-inept men (an entirely different issue) chugging their way up the hill to Court Street every weekend; when I see the pictures from an unkempt house’s grimy basement (Cleveland Browns jersey often hanging on the wall, symbolic of the trashiness of the house); those are the times I sit and ponder humankind.

Getting back to the issue of school pride, it seems OU students have pride for all the wrong reasons. Many are quick to don the #1-Party-School T-shirts and purchase their jersey for fest season, but how many students can name the last time they stayed past halftime for a football game? Who walks around with a #1-Journalism-School T-shirt? (I know I would.)

I miss when I could ask someone how their weekend was without once hearing the phrase “going out” in any form. It seems our generation lives and dies by the phrase: The nights you don’t remember are the ones you won’t forget. Pardon me for wanting more than that.

So as I see OU students pointing the finger of shame at Miami for the Student op-ed piece, I wonder how many fingers should be pointed right back at us. I’m reminded of this false sense of school pride more this weekend, Halloween weekend.

You remember Halloween: the holiday in which young children would go out trick-or-treating with their parents on a chilly fall night to get the once-yearly delight of a sack full of candy. However, OU students have twisted this weekend into yet another reason to get wasted.

Didn’t parties used to be celebrations of some special event? A birthday? An anniversary? A championship? Now, a “party” is just another day.

So OU students can point the finger at Miami, if we so choose. But it is important to remember that we are not so perfect ourselves, so perhaps before raising that finger we should take a look in the mirror.