Every weekend the students see new restrictions that hamper our efforts to have fun, but the matter of fact is that the more they try to tie us down the more recognition we get locally and nationally. We saw what happened with The Cottages, then with the local media, and now with the tailgates. Every time higher authorities try to put the students down, we come back stronger.
We may not be the biggest school or the most well-known, but UNM and it's student body have many attributes at our disposal that will allow us to grow. An "evolving" party school is an accurate description to describe UNM as of right now, but that is not the only thing we want to be known for. We want new students to pick UNM for other things like academics and athletics, to have that "party" school in your back pocket is just an extra incentive to encourage students to make their way down to Albuquerque.
If you look back in past years UNM was not even on the map when it was compared to other schools nationally. Most people outside of the state knew us because of our sports teams that were always pretty successful. Now with all these new features on media outlets and the local news, the school's popularity is growing. People are scared that UNM is growing and they are scared because of the image they think will come if UNM is eventually compared to the big schools across the country. The tailgate is one example of how people are scared of what is to come with an evolving school like UNM, they try to limit everything students can do at a tailgate in regards to mostly drinking. First off it is a tailgate, what do they expect students to do a tailgate? We are college students, we do what is natural to us, you do not hear local news outlets writing a story about a school in the SEC for drinking at a tailgate. National popularity is coming as recently the highly touted 'I'm Shmacked' recently reached out to UNM on twitter and seem to be keeping us on their radar. We already have our version of them in United We Rage which has set the stage for all this popularity. UWR keeps people coming back because they know what the students want and in all honesty we deserve the right to some good publicity here in New Mexico.
Students know what they want out of a college and that decision is different for everyone, but one thing every student likes is to have fun. Albuquerque is not used to all these headlines, but it was a matter of time before UNM evolved into a school known for things other than athletics and academics. Changes are coming to UNM that will change the community for good so whether or not people like it, they will have to get used to it or get left behind because UNM is evolving at a rapid pace.
