UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO NAMED NO. 1 PARTY SCHOOL

Editor's note: Earlier this month, readers were invited to visit our
Web site to cast their ballots for the Daily Camera's Top 10 Local
News Stories of 2003. The following story finished at No. 3.

The University of Colorado was named the nation's top party school in
August, causing some students to raise their glasses, while
administrators grimaced and launched a campaign to topple the
hard-partying image.

The Princeton Review's annual survey of the country's top 351 colleges
named CU its No. 1 party school. It was the first time that CU, which
was No. 8 last year, has vaulted all the way to the top.

CU's students also ranked No. 1 in the "almost-never study category,"
and No. 4 in the marijuana-use category.

The Princeton Review, which is not affiliated with the Ivy League
school, compiles its party rankings by surveying students at schools
across the country about their use of drugs and alcohol, and the
number of hours they study every week.

Princeton Review spokeswoman Jeanne Krier said her company surveyed
913 CU students - from business to chemical-engineering majors - to
compile the school's rankings.

The university has made major changes over the last five years to try
to clean up its party-school reputation. Officials have banned beer at
Folsom Field during football games and instituted a "three-strikes"
policy that expels any student with three alcohol violations.

After the rankings were released, CU launched a newspaper ad campaign
to counter the party image. The campaign encouraged students to "think
before you answer those survey questions," hinting that a party-school
image could lessen the value of a CU degree.

Rounding out the top five were the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
Indiana University at Bloomington, the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.