UD students can pride themselves in the community atmosphere, the Marianist heritage on campus, and maybe even the enormously high rate of underage drinking. All of these things are due in large part to the South and North Student Neighborhoods, more affectionately known as the Ghetto and the Darkside.

The online Web-surfer written encyclopedia Wikipedia describes the Ghetto as the 'home of upperclassmen at the University of Dayton,' before going into detail describing the main streets, the houses, landlord houses and Marianist homes. Wikipedia also describes the Darkside, giving its history as a network of un-lit streets, in addition to a list of the Ghetto's 'unique houses' such as fraternity and sorority houses, 'The Castle' and 'Birthplace of Friday Funday.'

Despite the fact that the Ghetto and the Darkside are defining points of UD culture, of daytime and nighttime activity and home to priests and Brothers, the administration in recent years has been discouraging the use of these terms. This year's new wave of calling the Ghetto and Darkside 'South and North Student Neighborhoods' is not new; earlier attempts of replacing the informal terms have occurred, such as when the administration tried to start the trend of calling the Ghetto the 'Triangle.' Shown by the sheer fact that a majority of current students have never heard of a triangle beyond the three sided shape, this trend never caught on. The new attempt at the title 'student neighborhood' is likely to be an equally successful term'one rarely used and possibly unknown.

However, despite many people's faith in the fact that the word 'ghetto' is here to stay, university officials have been pushing a more stringent offensive against the terms with the addition of the Class of 2010 to campus.

Why would the university discourage terms so frequently and passionately used by students? Clearly, 'ghetto' is most historically associated with the Jewish residential system under the Nazis as well as the dense, desolate and degrading neighborhoods of other minorities. While most people can recognize the seriousness associated with Jewish and minority ghettos, students nevertheless pride themselves in living in the Ghetto because the term is used on campus to describe a thickly populated area whose residents are united under a common theme, attending UD. In other words, students support the 'Ghetto' and 'Darkside' because they are not derogatory in their context. If the university fears how owning a 'ghetto' looks to the non-Dayton population, many students will respond with the statement that people can understand that the university does not force its students into a grim location. How? Again, because of the Ghetto in its context; it is easy for a person to figure out that the students paying $120,000 for college do not live in the slums.

Whether the university's administration bans the words 'ghetto' and 'darkside' from their dictionaries, the students will faithfully and religiously use the terms in their daily lives.