U Of F President Irked By Gators' Party School Honor

It must be difficult for any university president to respond to the news that the school they promote as a bastion of education, culture, and developing fine, upstanding human beings is designated as the nation's top-ranked party school. On one hand, you're grateful for the national exposure the school receives, but then you also have to answer the annoying questions from local reporters who question if the student body's BAC is more important than their GPA. That's the conundrum University of Florida President Bernie Machen is faced with the day after U Of F was crowned the No. 1 party school in the 2009 Princeton Review. Machen says that if the No. 1 ranking means that his student body works hard all week and drinks it up on the weekend, well, that's okay. But he's not stupid. "I'm afraid the connotation of a party school that goes around is not such a positive image and in that sense, I don't like it for our university. We're better than that, " Machen tells the prying Gainesville Sun. So Machen begins crowing about some of the steps that have been made under his watch to discourage binge-drinking at the school: banning alcohol advertisements in campus events, dumping Lex and Terry show's "Drunk Bitch Friday", where former Gator co-eds would be chauffeured into the studio piss drunk to provide commentary, and he even attempted to discourage the "World's Largest Cocktail Party" moniker from Florida-Georgia football game in Jacksonville. Good for you, President Machen. But for future reference, you might want to reconsider sharing this little piece of information to discourage the hard-partying reputation of your school:

Machen said the fact his name is associated with cracking down on alcohol use shows the effort has had some success. "There's even a drink named after me at one of the bars," he said.

Brilliant. Champion Partiers? [Gainesville Sun] Drink Like A Champion Today, Gator Fan [The Sporting Blog]