UMaine living

The best thing about the panel on student life assembled by UMaine President Peter Hoff is that it exists at all. Its conclusions about opportunities for students when they are not in class should serve as an introduction to an extended debate on campus life.

The panel’s report — called Transforming the Student Experience — has plenty of good suggestions. It offers ways to improve dorm living, make meal times more flexible, add emphasis to intramural sports, increase entertainment at Memorial Union and fix the frustrating parking situation. It points to places that safety could be enhanced and how the student judicial system could perform better.

University administrators and staff met late last week to discuss the report, and some questioned its usefulness, doubting the method used to gather information or saying the university had already addressed many of the report’s recommendations. Others said it was difficult to know what students wanted. Political science professor Jim Horan, pointing to a popular local pub, said it seems what students really want to do is drink and party.

Well, sure. Anyone who missed that has forgotten his own college years, missed the nifty movie “The Student Prince,” about hoist-the-tankard Heidelberg, or was part of that certain college crowd that always seemed to be given the wrong directions to the party. Certainly, college students are going to get together and drink beer and play loud music and act silly. After a beer or two, they might even start making fun of some stuffy professors. Bless them.

(Before anti-alcohol groups mail those letters to the editor: Of course, students should be of legal age, never drink to excess and should not even consider driving if they’re the least bit uncertain of whether they have had too much.) But the point is that students should have a range of options — from beery to culturally uplifting — to experience during their college years. They should want to stay around on the weekends because the university feels like one of those rare places that either they take advantage of or regret it forever.

UMaine has a more difficult time providing that than many other universities. It neither sits in the middle of a city such as Boston, nor is it attached to a bustling town within walking distance of campus. More than in most places, the university must provide its own social life.

Given a limited budget and the countless demands on it, that isn’t easy. The student-life report may not adequately recognize how much effort has already been put into this area, but that really wasn’t its purpose. President Hoff was looking for ways to make the college experience better at UMaine. He has asked the right question and gotten a fair response from his panel. Another meeting on the report is scheduled for September, when students have returned. Chances are they will let the president know what they think about the report.