In this final week of February, I'm looking upon a slushy swamp of melting snow, a result of the first 'warm' weather of 2007. Already, I can sense the excitement of a campus that's been kept inside by blizzard and cold. It's been refreshing to see some life at this place, to see people smiling and enjoying the sunshine.

So, that's the lamb-like nature of things right now at UD. But I've already heard the lion roaring in the distance.

Two weeks ago at SGA's party policy forum, students expressed discontented perceptions of the administration's attitude toward a new resolution made by the Student Life Council regarding fests and street-wide gatherings. Many students griped about our campus lacking any major, unifying communal element, like Duke with its basketball program or Ohio University's Halloween extravaganza. Though the common buzzwords appeared'Homecoming, Ghetto, community, etc.'a majority of the complaints came in retrospective glances towards the end-all, be-all of the UD social scene, the Mardi Gras-esque, 'best-time-of-my-life' illusion we all know as Lowesfest.

In my experience of UD, I've run the gamut in terms of experiencing Lowesfest: the craziness of my first year, when the local news stations referred to the event as a protest against the Iraq War, its 'cancellation' by rain in 2004, a resurgence during my junior year, when I lived on the street, and as a Neighborhood Fellow interacting with faculty to come up with a solution to deal with the destruction and cost of it. I'm no expert, but I've seen it from all angles. Looking ahead to the coming month, I've come to a conclusion on Lowesfest: forget it.

Now, if you love Lowesfest, don't burst into Beastie Boy-esque fury. I don't want to strip you of your right to party. Let's think of something new besides this thing that causes so much controversy for so little benefit. If you're a UD student who espouses community, Lowesfest is the last thing that we want to unify our student body. Besides the tens of thousands of dollars it costs us, this huge orgy doesn't typify our student body's commitment to service and academics, much less community. The only thing it's caused has been problems.

But you might be asking yourself'what will we have if we don't have Lowesfest? Well, unfortunately, UD has a troubled past when it comes to these huge events, culminating in the death of a student a few years ago. So it's a tough road to plow.

But we can come up with something better. Give up Lowesfest, UD. This isn't Animal House'we're not fighting for our fraternity to stay on campus and we don't have John Belushi to make a ridiculous, historically-inaccurate speech to save the day. Complain all you want about not having anything huge around here to unite us, but realize that statements such as 'Lowesfest is all we've got' significantly demean the hard work and dedication of a multitude of student organizations that are dedicated to bettering the world around us. Let's come up with some new ideas if we want to unite under a common banner, because this whole Lowesfest thing is getting old. Let's not be silent, still lambs, or roaring, dangerous lions'let's go into March more like migrating ducks who have come home after a long winter and are ready to settle in together to enjoy warm weather. We can even do the Flying V.