How to get your groove on, Yale-style

Whether they're cutting a rug, vegging out, or smoking a stogie, Yalies find time to unwind

BY ANDREA LYNCH

For some of you, just being away from home and having free rein to come and go as you please without little angels of curfew, designated drivers, and cops floating around your head from midnight 'til dawn will be enough to satisfy all your social desires. For others, it'll take more than a beer in hand to make the weekend a success. Yet despite what you might expect, amid the nooks and crannies of New Haven's finest Gothic university, students do find plenty of time to rage until the sun comes up. You may not find the social scene you crave during your first semester, but give it time and you'll be able to cultivate almost any kind of nightlife you desire.

HIRO SUZUKI/YH In these hallowed halls of learning, beer flows in honor of Canadian and Irish custom.

Life at Yale is a self-directed venture. Students carve their own lives out of whatever the University has to offer—classes, extracurriculars, sports, clubs—often leaving little room for a social life. This penchant for overextension leaves freshmen with a binge-and-purge mentality: work until you rupture your cerebral cortex and then party 'til your eyeballs bleed. If you want to go out every night, you can, but no one's going to hold your hand while you do it. Especially during freshman year, it can be tough to find the kind of nomadic social scene you may have been used to in high school. The institutional party scene is a bit weaker at Yale than at your average state school, or even at some of the other Ivies (don't worry, Harvard is not among them). Herewith, the low-down on what the University and the city can offer you.

Dances and college events

Although even talking about "dances" may summon up painful memories of high school, there are a few campus-wide shindigs that should not be missed. The first big dance event of the year is Timothy Dwight's Exotic Erotic. Keep in mind: the less you wear, the less you pay.

The fall is marked by a flurry of college-sponsored screw-your-roommate dances, culminating in the Freshman Screw—an event that may result in your worst awkward-date nightmare or a budding fantasy-romance. You don't get to find your date; your helpful and well-wishing roomies arrange it all for you, including how you and your appointed one will meet for the date. Just remember to be nice to your suitemates or you may find yourself dancing scantily-clad on the women's table, rose in hand, waiting to meet your date.

Other dances to mark on your calendar are the annual Pierson Inferno, a Halloween throw-down that is always well-attended and well-costumed, the Safety Dance, the annual '80s-themed dance that threatens to knock down the walls of Commons, the semi-formal Holiday Balls at each residential college, and the Winter Ball formal. Advice for the Safety Dance: get there early. You don't want to be stuck outside wishing you were one of the first lucky thousands raging to Men Without Hats. If you're too young to remember the '80s, don't worry: last year introduced the Humpty Dance, where you can Macarena down the decade that got you through puberty. Nothing like people still in their teens getting nostalgic, eh?

Once a year, Morse and Stiles transform their adjoining dining halls into a black-tie fantasy land for Casino Night, an event Rolling Stone once named one of the top 10 campus parties in America. The Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Cooperative (the Co-op) also holds several dances a year for both straight and gay students that draw a tremendous Yale crowd. If you can stand the obligatory "YMCA" and "I Will Survive," then grab a group of friends, get decked out in the craziest clothes you can get your hands on and prepare to hit the floor. Other quality dances and parties can be found at the Afro-American Cultural Center on Park Street and the Graduate and Professional Student Center at Yale (GPSCY) next door—the mixes are solid and the dancing goes on late into the night.

Your host this evening is...

Yalies have a predilection for organizing, and sometimes it seems as though kids here can't do anything without first creating an organization to sponsor it. A prime example of this is B&K (some say it stands for Benevolence and Knowledge, some say it stands for Bong and Keg—you decide), an organization devoted to providing an off-campus party every Thursday night. The location of the party rotates among members' houses and apartments. These parties get crazy and crowded pretty quickly, and they are definitely a safe bet for a fun Thursday night—if you can find out where they are. Another organization to look out for is Society Electronica, a bunch of techno-lovers bonded together to bring glowsticks, pacifiers, and the occasional rave to Yale.

And while we're talking about organizations devoted to partying, how can we forget fraternities? Frats don't make up a significant part of the social scene here, but you'll definitely find yourself at a frat party or two during your Yale career—most likely during the first week of your freshman year. The upside to frats is that there's always tons of alcohol, and you can always find someone to hook up with. Perhaps the two most notable frat-sponsored events are Feb Club and Tang, both organized by δκε. Feb Club is δκε's answer to the February doldrums: every night of that horrendous month, δκε provides a keg in someone's room or apartment to drown the winter malaise. At Tang, which takes place during Spring Fling weekend, teams from each residential college are pitted against each other in an all-out drinking contest that takes no prisoners and shows no mercy. Participate if you dare.

Painting the town red

I don't need to tell you that New Haven is no match for New York, Boston, or even Philadelphia in terms of a flourishing bar and club scene, but the city does offer several decent hangouts for those who feel circumscribed by the boundaries of campus nightlife. Naples is the unofficial campus hangout for students in search of a pitcher and a pie, and despite having lost its dance floor, it is consistently packed on Thursday nights (not school nights anymore). But for those of you who want a slightly calmer (yet strangely, more packed with athletes and charged with testosterone) Thursday night scene, Kavanagh's on Chapel Street offers the Irish bar thing. If you want to dance with townies, try the venerable Toad's, also a famous concert venue, or the brand-new clubs Risk and Alchemy.

If you're looking for a more chill off-campus scene, there are a variety of local bars that will undoubtedly suit your fancy. Rudy's on Elm Street is a favorite off-campus dive, which regularly boasts live punk and jazz and offers free slices from Sally's Famous Pizzeria on Friday afternoons. A nice way to bond with your suite is to go sake-bombing at Miya's. BAR, located near Louis' Lunch on Crown Street, offers live music and delicious pizza. The Anchor Bar on College Street, former favorite of Jodie Foster, is also a mainstay watering hole for those who just want to chill with a drink when classes are done.

Just hanging out

So maybe none of these scenes will suit your fancy freshman year—you'll find yourself at a few frat parties, a few college events, a few Co-op dances—and you might be disappointed. But the great thing about Yale is the people; you don't need a raging party to have a good time. Some of your best nights will be spent wandering around at 4 a.m. or hanging out in someone's room, maybe renting a video or drinking 40s or arguing over which is the best sitcom to come out of the '80s.

The great thing about Yale is that it gets better every year—academically, extracurricularly, and, yes, socially. So even if you feel at first like you're trawling on a sea of unrequited social aspirations, it's just a phase.

Graphic by Sara Edward-Corbett.

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