THE NO. 1 PARTY SCHOOL

Drugs, alcohol, fraternities, sororities and a minimal commitment to
hitting the books make the University of Tennessee the top party school in
the nation, according to the Princeton Review.

The Princeton Review, which publishes college and testing guidebooks and is
not affiliated with Princeton University, released the "Party Schools" list
in the 2002 edition of "The Best 331 Colleges," a guidebook based on
70-question surveys filled out by 65,000 students. It offers rankings in 62
categories.

"It's not my opinion," said lead author Robert Franek. "It's the opinion of
the hundreds of students that we talk to at each school."

The ranking was greeted with skepticism on campus.

"On our campus, I don't believe it for a minute," said Ed Yovella, chief of
the University of Tennessee Police Department. "Now, I cannot say a lot
about the apartments that the kids live in off campus, ... but on our
campus, it's a lot better now than it was a few years ago."

The number of underage drinking citations on campus dropped from 358 in
1999 to 303 last year, according to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
report in June, although drug crimes nearly doubled, to 117.

"I don't think UT is any worse or any better than anywhere else on drug and
alcohol use," said Bradford Bricken, president of the Student Government
Association.

Bricken and others said the popularity of fraternities and sororities
shouldn't give UT a party-school reputation.

UT's reactions don't surprise Franek. "It's a ranking that's not coveted
... Schools that are on ranking lists that are not so good try to poke
holes in (the) methodology."

The survey asked students to rank their schools on various criteria using a
five-point scale. For instance, "How popular are fraternities/sororities?";
"How many out-of-class hours do you spend studying each day?"; and "How
widely used are" beer, hard liquor, marijuana and other drugs.