Where are the young people?

By Katie Powers

This past weekend, your favorite, duteous newspaper staff traveled to Washington, D.C., for a national college journalism conference. To some Santa Clarans, the thought of leaving on Halloween weekend may have been ludicrous, but to me, getting away for a weekend meant something even more exciting than Halloween.

For once on a Friday night, I was surrounded by other people my age who don't go to Santa Clara.

If part of the thrill of college is meeting new people, then Santa Clara comes up short. Once you step off campus, I have to ask, where are other young people?

At other, bigger schools with 20,000 students and more, the thrill of meeting people is satisfied at just another house party. Students in big cities like Chicago and New York can go places in the city where they will meet other college-age suitors. Even smaller big cities, like Boston and D.C., host at least three colleges and have plenty of venues where students can mingle.

Maybe it's geography that divides us from our surrounding schools. We may be only an hour away from San Francisco, but in the scheme of a Friday night, an hour is eternity compared to my seven-minute walk to the "light side." Not to mention, if you really want to party, the Caltrain ride takes an hour and a half and stops running at midnight.

What about our Stanford friends who are only a half-hour ride away? Do they think they are too good to welcome the fun-loving Broncos to their vast playing grounds?

Judging by the amount of parties that require Stanford IDs, it seems so.

The so-called "bar scene" here is slim pickings. You've got the Hut, C&Js, the former Claran, and Blinky's. I don't have anything against dive college bars -- in fact, I think they have a lot of character -- but when I go inside and the bar is made up of the friends that I came with, people I recognize on my walk to O'Connor, or biker gangs, some of the magic is lost.

In D.C., I found myself surrounded by dozens of people around my age out and about on a Friday night. The opportunities were endless! The bars were hip but still welcoming, homey but not a dark den of regulars, and equipped with just the right mix of seating and dance floor.

I do attest that the community at Santa Clara is one of the best parts about the school. It's comforting to be able to go to parties with all of your friends and you know you will often run into more friends from classes or work.

But what happens when those relationships don't satisfy, particularly for those single felines on the hunt?

Why don't we reclaim downtown San Jose and start a better relationship with San Jose State? If it means new young faces, I vote yes.