This letter is in response to Alice Shin’s column criticizing I.V. parties (“The Obligatory Column by a Freshman About I.V. Parties,” Oct. 19). Alice had some very strong opinions about the “lame-ass” partygoers of I.V., especially stereotyping us as pathetic alcoholics who serve no purposeful meaning in life. Not only are her remarks outright insulting, but she openly criticizes complete strangers.

While I have never met Alice, I’m convinced that she is a bitter, cynical person who believes that she is better than everyone else. She seems to think that she has more of a right to be here than the other thousands of people who live in I.V., as if we got into college by sheer luck. It really is unfortunate that she is so miserable here, but her complaining to the entire I.V. community is unnecessary and downright depressing. Excuse me, Alice, for not feeling sorry for you – I happen to be very happy living on DP and enjoying my youth.

I felt like I needed to write this letter because I probably represent the exact type of person that Alice enjoys verbally attacking. I’ll admit to going out on the weekends and drinking, and sometimes even – God forbid – getting drunk and hyper. However, I am not the irresponsible, lazy and mentally deficient girl that Alice would assume me to be if she saw me at a party. I work hard in school, have a 3.6 grade point average and am in the honors program. It just so happens that I enjoy going out on the weekends after a stressful week of classes and for that I am certainly not ashamed. I will not apologize for having a social life.

I can assure Alice that my fellow students and I actually do care about college, even if some of us occasionally do keg stands and take bong loads. The same goes for community college students – not going to a four-year university doesn’t necessarily mean that one is a brainless moron.

I hope Alice will one day learn that being a complete snob will not make her college experience any more manageable. Maybe then she will learn to have respect for others and not attack them with her thoughtless, insensitive judgments. In other words, she should remove that stick from her ass. And on a side note, I want Alice to know that she would be wise not to come to any of my parties – my retard friends and I might just snap in our drunken state.

Tiffany Miller is a sophomore communication major.