Blowout Stories - Teachers
Last Updated:4/22/09 Section: Features
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What I remember from my first blowout last spring was coming back from a meeting, hungry, getting my hands on a really good hot dog, and eating it among a lot of happy students, including a couple from the Law School who'd come over to see what all the noise was about. Blowout is a good idea -- a time to release some steam and relax between the end of classes and the beginning of exams. Blowout is best, of course, when consciously experienced -- when not dead drunk. To ensure body and brain survive for exams, and to avoid spoiling other people's fun, let's keep the booze in the bottle.
President Taylor Reveley
2)
I have always liked the energy and joyousness of Blowout at William and Mary. The students here work extremely hard during the year, and Blowout is one of the few moments where (almost) everyone on campus takes a few hours to just have fun and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Blowout is a real community event; everyone comes together to celebrate the end of their undergraduate days. I like, too, that seniors drop by my office or classroom to chat and to remember that they had seminars with me. I have never had a bad experience during blowout and look forward to the sounds of bells, music and maniacal laughter every year.
Professor Taylor, German Studies, MLL
3) "an anonymous senior faculty member who fears for his job"
About ten years ago, a new assistant professor in my department was sitting in her office at around 8:15 am on Blowout, her first, talking on the phone to a close friend, telling her how beautiful the W&M campus was that spring morning and what a delight the students were to deal with. The sun was out and the birdies were singing. As she spoke to her friend, my colleague was looking out her office window, which was next to her desk and right at ground level, behind some shrubs by a door into the building. Just as she was waxing on about how idyllic things were that spring morning in the Burg, a guy walking down the path to class after a night of pre-Blowout revelry became ill, dashed behind the shrubs I just mentioned, and proceeded to upchuck a night's worth of liquid consumption all over my colleague's office window, with her looking out, still on the phone, but now completely appalled. I guess she needed to qualify the comments she was making about the quality of life at W&M.
- "an anonymous senior faculty member who fears for his job"
Clay Clemens
My favorite blowout stories happened in the late nineties when blowout was in full force. Some students in my class told me they were going to bring blenders on the last day of classes to produce their concoctions. Instead of saying, "don't do that", I told them that "they wouldn't dare do that," really never the right choice of words. At that point [in my career], I actually tried to hold a regular class on the last day of classes. I started my lecture and about 30 seconds into my first words, there was a revving up of appliances that sounded like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre going on in the back of the room. They hadn't actually brought drinks to class but at that point, I realized that I was not going to be able to get through a full class lecture.
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