Student Admits to Not Actually Liking the Song “Closer,” Loses All Friends

HAMILTON, NY—Expressing feelings of sadness and anger, first-year Colgate student Anna Smith just confirmed that her current lack of friends is completely due to her not liking the song “Closer (feat. Halsey)” by American DJ duo The Chainsmokers.

Recently, Smith was spotted sitting completely alone in Frank Dining Hall, a suspicious sign given that freshmen girls are known to travel in packs. When a reporter reached out to Smith for a comment on her unusual dining situation, she promptly burst into tears and began telling the story of her exile from her friend group.

According to Smith, the incident began during a typical pregame for Freshmen Jug Night. Smith and her friends were busy pouring Frank cranberry juice and flavored Smirnoff into old plastic water bottles when Smith began playing music from her phone. The trouble started when Caroline Roche ’20, who was frantically trying to finish applying her eyeliner, drunkenly shouted, “You know what song I loooove dancing to at the Jug? And put on my snap story like every time I hear it? Closer!” according to Smith.

 

Following Roche’s declaration, the other girls vigorously agreed with her and began peppering Smith with requests to play the song. “After that, you know, I just thought that maybe it would be okay to say ‘Actually, I don’t like that song that much, maybe can we listen to something by Lil Yachty instead?’ But they all just stared at me, and one said, ‘Play the song or get out,’” said Smith as she tried to dry her eyes. “I laughed because I thought they were joking but then Caroline told me that I had to leave her room.” Smith was forced to return to her room while tipsy and alone, missing Freshmen Jug Night. Since the incident, she has not heard from a single one of her friends and is routinely ignored by them around campus.

 

At press time, Smith was beginning to frantically text every group chat that she was a part of saying that she had changed her mind and actually loves the song now.

Deer Take Hostages in Advance of Annual Culling

HAMILTON, NY—Panic swept across campus this morning as the annual Hamilton Deer Cull drew near. Three freshmen were dragged, screaming, from their dorms by some of the village’s most aggressive and destructive residents—the deer. “They just broke down the door, four of them, and took Courtney,” sobbed Marisa DeLeon ‘20, as she stood outside her Andrews dorm. Two freshman boys were also abducted by the deer from West Hall who reportedly wore ski masks as they smashed the windows to gain entry. In both instances, the deer left ransom notes in the bedrooms of those taken. “If you ever want to see students again, cancel Annual Deer Culling!!! Also, deliver $100,000 cash and salt blocks to the woods. No cops!”

Hamilton Mayor and Colgate professor, Bob McVaugh, is said to be in close consultation with President Casey and the New York State Police. “We’re currently weighing all of our options on how to respond to this crisis,” McVaugh said. Police weighed a man-hunt to retrieve the students, meeting the deer’s demands or even continuing with the cull as planned. “Look, I want to get those students back safely as much as the next guy, but my wife will kill me if I let the little monsters eat her flowers again,” McVaugh said. Sgt. Hartmann of the NYSP confirmed. “I mean we could mount a rescue operation, but there’s just so much forest around here. I’d have to call men from as far away as Cortland and Oneonta, and we just… oh, that’s just gonna be so much work. You said they’re only freshmen, right? Not sophomores or upperclassmen?”

 

After some debate, the majority of the community had decided it was just better to go through with the culling as planned. At press time, the deer re- leased a video of them trampling one of the hostages to a pulp.

HELP WANTED! Freshman Seeking Fall Themed Boyfriend

HAMILTON, NY—Wanted for Immediate Employment: Cute fall-festive guy to engage in romantic relationship, potentially coitus, for the duration of the autumn season. Employer is average-looking freshman girl, 5’8”, 135 lbs, fun, bubbly personality. Contract ends December 21, 2016 (first day of winter). Extension for winter season possible, decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Duties include day outings to pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and corn mazes, wearing a hot, but still cute, couples Halloween costume, photographing employer during outings, and posing for photos with employer that will be edited, filtered, and posted to Instagram in a timely manner. Participation in No Shave November will nullify the contract, unless the scruff gives off a sexy lumberjack vibe. Fulfills 1 Physical Education Requirement; contact your advisor for more information.

Requirements: Smell like a pumpkin spice latte. Flannels and Bean boots encouraged. Photography experience recommended. Applicants will be evaluated on physical looks and not much else. Submit a copy of your headshot and resume to thirstygurl@colgate.edu by October 21, 2016 for consideration.

Community Garden Fails; Starvation Imminent

HAMILTON, NY— Students who tend Colgate’s community garden were shocked this weekend to discover that an autumn freeze had killed all the crops, cutting off the university’s only supply of food. “We showed up early to harvest the crops, but they were frosted over and died in the night,” said panicked senior Haley Quince, “Good God, we didn’t harvest enough crops to last us the winter! It’s too late to plant new ones! We’ll all starve!”

Food riots quickly broke out at Frank as students ransacked the dining hall for whatever they could scrounge. Grim-faced professors and administrators abandoned their posts to go plunder Price Chopper while some picked through the remnants of the dead crops at the garden. Freshmen hastily formed tribes and began hunting squirrels and geese for food; they were about as successful as one would expect a bunch of suburban New Yorkers to be at hunting.

Students quickly concocted radical solutions to the food shortage. “I hear Cornell has plenty of food; those Big Red Bastards are just hoarding it!” shouted Mark Merrick ‘19 to a large crowd brandishing torches and pitchforks. “We should march to Ithaca, take all their food, and burn their stupid campus to the ground— especially after that stupid Homecoming football game!” The crowd roared in assent as they envisioned stealing the bounty of Upstate New York: apples, dairy and vegetables— and from Cornell, no less.

The situation came under control as President Casey addressed the crowd from the Chapel. “Everyone, please be calm!” the president said, “I just called up a few friends and made some arrangements. There should be trucks with plenty of food arriving from New York and Boston by tomorrow morning that will keep us supplied through winter.” The Chapel erupted in applause as the President quietly announced that the plan to pillage and burn Cornell was still on.

13 Things Better than Brock Turner Lecturing on College Campuses

Our first installment of a new series called “Real Things Actually Happening in the World” . . .

Former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner wants to once again impose his will upon innocent college students, only this time it will take place in slightly better-lit areas and he’ll be given a microphone for some reason. That’s right, everybody’s favorite apotheosis of privilege could be coming to a campus near you to share his valuable insights on…hell if we know.

After serving his disturbingly short and later reduced prison sentence, Turner emerged the same irresponsible little shit he was before. Only now, he and his ne’er-do-well family have a plan to clear his name: a lecture series.

When asked why he wanted to do this, Turner resorted to his go-to response: “Challenging drinking culture and promiscuity in higher education” but later commented, “Honestly, they’re [college campuses] just asking for it.” This decision was lauded by California judges (but only the ones who were also college athletes and Stanford graduates) yet notably abhorred by anyone with ears and a tenuous grasp on reality. Given the dubious nature of this decision, The Rag has compiled a list of 13 ideas better than a Turner lecture series.

1. Summering in Syria
2. Eating a Jug dog
3. Snapchatting former Congressman Anthony Weiner
4. Drinking the punch
5. Participating in a Miss Universe Pageant
6. Jill Stein’s presidential bid
7. Attending Trump University
8. Killing Kendrick’s vibe
9. Gazing long into an abyss (for soon it will also gaze into you…) 10. Pissing off a writer at The Rag
11. Setting up a private email server in your bathroom
12. Invading Russia in the winter
13. Buying a Samsung Galaxy Note 7

Plans Underway for Campus Safety and Residential Life Merger

HAMILTON, NY— Colgate plans to launch a complete revamping of the Campus Safety and Residential Life department by slashing staff and combining them into a smaller office. Plans to construct a new building on the Field of Dreams are underway; sources have told us that the wild inconvenience of the location, as well as the advantage of greater access to smoking with students, is ideal. Complaints have been ongoing for years about the overall inefficacy and absolute moronic functioning of these departments. A ResLife staff member said, “We’ve figured out that the problem is that we’ve been coddling students far too much. For this merger, less really is more.” The new hours will be from 1-4 PM, Sundays through Tuesdays only. Students will have to fill out a seven-page application and complete a four-hour ropes course to receive a permit that allows them to contact to staff members. Violators without permits will immediately be relocated into a forced triple in Curtis.

As Colgate continues to rise in the ranks as a party school, efforts have been focused on the highest standard of safety encompassing every aspect of student life. The head of Campus Safety told a Rag reporter, “We’re working on placing a live-in Campo officer in every residential building, including some of the apartments. Why waste the space of a dingle, when you can stick Campo in a double with a student—it gives them a real sense of security, confidence. For the student, I mean.” Names for the new department are still up in the air, but some of the stronger suggestions have included “Big Brother Colgate” and “Gate Dick-tators.”

Gossip Column: The Women’s Bathroom

In a high-risk operative mission, a Rag reporter infiltrated Beta Theta Pi Fraternity’s 80s party and successfully gathered top-secret gossip from the women’s bathroom this past Saturday night. Stealthily breaking into the restroom at 11:47 PM, our reporter camouflaged herself by curling around a trashcan and groaning every few minutes for two hours.

The night was heavy with sweat, beer, and incoherent shrieks of “Oh my god, I LOVE this song!!!” The stage was set—and an indulgent display of stranger’s love and validation was about to commence.

A freshman girl was slumped against the wall, complaining to her friends in slurred words that she was too sweaty and gross for that guy with the pink neon shorts to hook up with her. Junior Leah Davis shrieked from the back of line and went up to hug the girl saying, “Oh my God, no, that’s crazy! Look how beautiful you are! You’re literally glowing! You don’t need that asshole if he can’t see all the amazingness you are! Anyone would be lucky to hook up with you; he should be on his hands and knees pleading!” The freshman girl looked up at her, eyes brimming with tears, and said, “No way, you are too sweet!” Davis grabbed her into a giant bear hug before the next stall opened and Davis slid in with seven others of the freshmen girl clique.

 

Around 12:38AM, oozing confidence and poise, senior Kari Lawrence strutted into the bathroom and cut three other girls to snag a stall. Vicious whispers erupted from the other dozen girls crowding the bathroom, “Who the fuck does she think she is?” and “I’ve been here for seven hours, sacrificed my first child for my place in line, and this chick walks in like she owns the place?!” It was a clear low point of the night, and it was hard to see if the women’s bathroom could recover from such a devastating blow. The stall opened a few minutes later and Lawrence emerged in shame. “I’m so so so sooooo sorry, you guys! But I’m about to hook up with this girl I’ve had a crush on for three years though, didn’t want any emergencies!” The room burst into a chorus of “awwww’s” and the crowd enveloped her in warm, welcoming arms.

 

It was a night full of tenderness, deep affection, and mild alcohol poisoning, fueled by empowered women and punch. To keep up the disguise, our reporter had to feign being blackout when a group of girls confronted her. She was immediately escorted from the party and tucked into bed at home, with a warm glass of milk, aspirin, a backpack so she wouldn’t vomit and choke, and a number to call in the morning to make sure she was okay.

Student Resident Halls Sold to Real Estate Mogul, Wayne

HAMILTON, NY—Due to declining enrollment number, President Brian Casey has been forced to privatize a number of student services. It was announced on Wednesday that all of Colgate’s student residential facilities would be sold to local real estate mogul Wayne. Wayne has previously been accused by the Department of Housing and Urban Development of being a slumlord, but when contacted by the Rag he refuted these allegations. “Tell me what’s better ventilation than a few holes in the wall and roof? Huh! Plus, the Iroquois ain’t had no plumbing and you ain’t hear them complaining!” Upon gaining ownership of the residences, Wayne immediately fired all Building and Grounds personnel, and has begun removing all copper pipes and wiring from the building, which allegedly cause birth defects.

 

President Casey also announced that all dining halls were being sold to local restraunteur John Jug, who immediately announced that all food items would immediately be replaced by a mysterious substance dubbed “Jug Dogs.” Although no student admitted to having tried one, Mr. Jug insisted that “They got relish, onions, ketchup. And probably meat, everything you need in a balanced meal.” He also announced that all soda fountains would be replaced with fully stocked alcoholic bars and that his number one priority would be to end the epidemic of bench and table standing related injuries.

Student Successfully Avoids Eye Contact Passing Vague Acquaintance

HAMILTON,NY—Sophomore Alex Vaughn successfully avoided eye contact after noticing a vaguely familiar face walking towards him on campus. Thinking quickly, Vaughn immediately pulled out his phone and began staring at the screen intensely. Not sure a simple stare would be convincing enough, Vaughn pondered how to better portray a human being deeply engaged in an interesting BuzzFeed article. After some internal deliberation, he decided his best bet was to throw in some upward thumb swipes to thwart any suspicion of him purposefully looking at a blank screen. Not one to settle for mediocrity, Vaughn was sure to incorporate a few realistic facial expressions for good measure—to really drive the point home that he was, in fact, reading something on his phone, and not just avoiding the possibility of locking eyes with the girl he kind of knows from Legacies, but would much rather avoid explicitly acknowledging.

Looking up from his phone, Vaughn was happy to see no vague acquaintance in sight, when he ran into his old professor whose class he failed last semester. Not knowing the appropriate course of action, in a split-second decision Vaughn decided on an awkward head nod—a silent but effective method of conveying zero interest in verbal communication until they awkwardly end up in the same line at Price Chopper next month.

Hidden Gems: Colgate’s Finest Napping Locations

Between sexilement, popcorn-related fire alarms, last-minute papers, lost keys, and simply not being able to find your way back home, there are many reasons you might not get your recommended 6 to 8 hours of sleep during your time at Colgate. If Deathwish coffee just doesn’t cut it for you anymore, you might need to revert to your old kindergartener ways. The Monthly Rag is here to give you the inside scoop on the best places to nap on campus.

#4- Peace and Conflict Lounge, Alumni Hall, Second Floor.

While it might look remarkably similar to the free couch on the side of the road, the orange sofa in the PCON lounge will gently cradle you and pull you in, like the promise of a free tee-shirt for declaring your major. It’s the perfect place to go to blissfully forget you didn’t even study for that midterm. Be careful not to directly challenge any of the PCON students if they already have a claim to the couch, as they study conflict all day and will not fight fair.

#3- Booth, Donovan’s Pub*

Take advantage of the fact that one of the three dining options available to students is barely ever open for business. Occasionally you may have to jimmy open the lock on the door to enter, in which case the entrance to the pub nearest the bathrooms usually provides the least difficulty. Once inside, you are practically assured privacy for a nice long nap.

#2- Lounge, Chapel Basement

If you weren’t already aware of this option you’re likely a heathen, but then again, so are many of us who attend the school with the motto “God and Truth.” If you do not burst into flames upon entry to the building, make your way to the basement, find an empty spot on the usually well-occupied set of couches, curl up, and let yourself be possessed with the most wonderful blessing a student can ask for: sleep.

#1- Raab House, President’s Residence*

Ever wish you could be just like President Casey? Well you can’t, but you can sleep like him. Much like Donovan’s Pub, this may require some finesse. The best option here is to ensure that President Casey is out walking his dog or in his office at 301 James B. Colgate Hall. This is likely the only way most of us will ever have the chance to sleep like a President.

*Selected entries are also popular on students’ hookup bucket list locations.