At a first glance, St. Lawrence University may seem like your typical four-year academic institution. However, it definitely has some idiosyncrasies, especially within the party culture.

First of all, let’s talk about the weather. Although this winter has been relatively mild for the North Country, we still had a week of terrifying negative thirties with a combination of snow and ice storms here and there. Needless to say, it’s cold up here. However, weather is of no concern to SLU students. If someone were to sit at the intersection of Park Street and University Avenue (AKA where Security scouts out), he or she would see numerous groups of students bundled up in their Patagonia down jackets and bean boots trekking their way to the Hoot or the Tick Tock, regardless of the unplowed roads and icy sidewalks. And somehow, everyone seems to survive the night each weekend. Perhaps there’s something in the water at St. Lawrence that makes us invulnerable to the cold weather.

These weekly trips to town are definitely not the only way SLU students deal with the freezing weather. The annual Rail Jam on the quad and journey to the magical land of Titus provide some use for the cold. For the few who do not know what this is, the Outing Club hosts a Rail Jam every year, where neon-clad, perhaps-intoxicated, people ski and snowboard down manmade ramps on the quad. The next day, these same people get on yellow school buses and voyage over to Titus Mountain for a full day of binge drinking and mingling with fellow SLUdents. It seems that these annual winter parties give life to the rather dead, subzero campus.

Another atypical habit of SLU party culture is the longevity of the parties. In a big university or any major city, “going out” typically entails barhopping and clubbing until the early hours of the next day. However, we do not have that option because – well, because Canton. Instead, everyone “pregames” with their friends in their dorm then moves on to another dorm, where the party is held. Then, either the owners of the house or Security shuts it down around midnight, and everyone begins their pilgrimage to town once again. It is almost ritualistic.

All in all, the “small campus in the middle of nowhere” vibe at SLU and the brutally cold weather of the North Country make for a bizarre party culture to form. In this way, the experiences that SLUdents have are definitely not typical of any other college student.