WADS is Back!

"WADS is Back!", November 2007

For those first years, students who lived exclusively in res, or those who live on the other side of Main, you may have no idea who W.A.D.S. is. Let me tell you, W.A.D.S stands for Westdale Against Drunk Students. And boy, do they hate our guts. Starting in 2006, W.A.D.S. has used the same weak arguments about how we students are ruining the Westdale community. If you want more information, you can check out a previous story from the Silhouette. This past week, W.A.D.S. has sent out yet another publication via Canada Post for everyone’s enjoyment. Consequently, I’m going to rip it apart.

(See attached images to see the letter in full, scanned front and back)

This article is long, here's a look at what is covered:
- Bad use of grammer/spelling
- Dreamy wading pools of Jell-o
- Attacking our football team
- Vast generalizations
- Saving the environment
- Quarters sales = profits?
- Calling people names = mature?
- American Pie argument is faulty
- Issues: Ever heard of MSU student clubs?
- Location confusion
- Frosh week? We don't have 'Frosh week'


Grammar and Spelling of the 'mature' Adult
The first thing I’d like to bring to everyone’s attention about this rant, entitled “Come to Sterling And King Streets – Meet The Stupid Student,” is how poorly it’s written. Granted, I may have a better writing ability than some people, but this is just deplorable. The following are words I caught misspelled: Jell-o, backyards, overall, of (yes, of). There were frequent and incorrect usages of the dash: not using them for compound adjectives (self-assurance, South-Western, etc), as well as using them in nearly every sentence in the rant instead of other forms of punctuation such as colons, semi-colons, and commas. Em dashes are to be used to indicate sudden breaks in thought. Either the author’s thought process was full of breaks, or they need to brush up on their grammar. Continuing on my Grammar rant trend are the author’s lack of congruency when formatting their subject, the Stupid Student (either all of them should be boldface and italicized, not most of them), as well as movie and literature titles. You obviously used some sort of word processing software to type up your little rant. Did you purposefully avoid the words and sentences underlined in green and red, or did you somehow miss them?

Wading Pools of Jell-o... where?
The first point I want to bring up is the apparent wading pool full of Jell-o where people would wrestle with strippers. When did this happen? How come no one I have spoken to knows about this? Lastly, how can you be sure that some of the people involved were exotic dancers? The only thing I can think of that is even similar to this apparent event is the annual KY Kegger (which I have only heard of, and not attended), and last I checked personal lubricant and Jell-o are not one and the same.

Men = Poor football players? Huh?
The second point I want to bring up is the apparent gender treachery of the male Stupid Student. All males who drink are muscular and play football, but poorly? Again, where is this occurring, do you mean members of the football team, or just people throwing pigskin around? The whole argument sort of fizzles out before it really begins. Note: McMaster has done well in football, even getting in the Top 10. Tied to this is the argument of girls walking around scantily-clad in November; which I too sometimes wonder about myself.

Vast Generalizations
I agree about the stupid, pointless, and gross things people do while intoxicated. I really do not understand what compels them to do those things either. However, in saying that all students of the Westdale area are the apparent Stupid Student all you are doing is making broad sweeping generalizations that are not true for the majority of the population. I do feel badly that these incidents occur to you and your neighbors, but I don’t like being stereotyped in such a manner.

Saving the Environment
You suggest that the Stupid Student would much rather be drinking than fixing the world. Do not forget that it is your generation who is currently in charge of correcting the problems of the Earth. And thus you are also responsible for it’s state more so than we are; we are the ones who will be stuck with repairing whatever small changes you make in the next decade or so. Of course, you know nothing about MACGreen, its initiatives, or its purpose, correct?

$1.5m in sales = $1.5m in profit?
As for the alleged $1.5 million dollars in sales Quarters has during the academic year…where did you acquire this information? Quarters profits are not easily available to just anyone, so either you magically found this number as I could not, or it was fabricated. Also, the amount of sales a business has does not mean that they have that much in profit: they must also pay for employee wages, stock, utilities and other such things. I highly doubt that Quarters is as affluent as you make it out to be; especially since the prices at Quarters (for food as well as alcohol) are on the cheaper side. Furthermore, as a study by Town and Gown Association of Ontario suggests, campus bars nation-wide are not raking in profits like they used to.

Calling people names = Mature?
Now comes for something that really appalled me. You address our MSU President, Ryan Moran as Ryan Moron. I thought you were supposed to be mature, responsible adults? You reprimand the student body for intolerable behavior, and yet you result to childish name-calling. Are you serious? I happen to know Ryan personally; I do not know him as well as my housemates, friends from residence in first year, or even my grandmother, but Ryan truly is one of the most genuinely nice people I have ever met. For the author to result to using tactics that should have been left behind in kindergarten only further discredits their argument.

American Pie argument is faulty
You are correct in that American Pie: The Naked Mile was filmed on campus. However, since the university in the film was supposed to be American, they would not have shown any signage that would have said McMaster. The movie was also filmed at Port Credit Secondary School. Does that mean that they too wanted to be famous for beer and stupidity? With a regional science program, as well as an enhanced music curriculum I sincerely doubt that. In fact, PCSS was ranked 115th in the recent Toronto Sun (linky: http://www.torontosun.com/News/Highs...e.php?all=true) rankings of all Ontario high schools.

Issues: Ever heard of MSU student clubs?
Apparently you think that current McMaster students lack empathy towards any human rights or political issues. According to the MSU clubs website, and my counting skills, there are seventy-four social issues clubs available at McMaster. Clearly at least some of us think there are issues in this world that need to be dealt with.

Location confusion
You say you occupied Gilmour Hall, and not Quarters. Quarters did not exist before 2003. Do you mean to say you occupied the Downstairs John and the Rathskeller? Neither of those are in Gilmour Hall. Oops. Looks like you should check up on your facts.

Frosh week? We don't have 'Frosh week'
The last point I would like to make is about Frosh Week. McMaster does not have a Frosh Week. McMaster has a Welcome Week. Welcome Week is different from frosh week in that it does not have any of the negative or derogatory occurrences that occurred during Frosh Weeks of the past such as hazing. Welcome Week has nothing to do with alcohol, as most of the incoming first year students are now eighteen years of age. As a result, all events planned for them are alcohol-free. Being a Welcome Week Rep for the past three years, I can tell you that there are strict rules that we must follow, one of which is that we sign a contract that states we will not drink alcohol during the span of Welcome Week. Again, your point is completely erroneous.

Conclusion
Thank you to the author of this lovely little rant on behalf of W.A.D.S. Just like your arguments from 2006, these ones are so easy to be proven false. That and I hope to hell I made your organization with the hilarious but yet somewhat unfortunate acronym look like a tool yet again.