By Mallory Paruszewski, Liberty Goodnow and Jacob Ervin, Senior Reporters
Every Saturday, cars with Northwestern Oklahoma State University parking stickers fill the bar parking lots and Alva streets as students look for a portion of the college experience: nightlife.
So, what does nightlife include for Rangers?
A survey conducted of 40 students at Northwestern found that 37 of the participants drink alcohol at least once per week and visit bars at least every other week. Also, 36 students self-reported that they attend house parties on a regular basis.
However, participants also enjoyed doing various other activities for nightlife. More than half of the participants said they like to go bowling, watch movies or eat at restaurants on a weekly basis. Other participants mentioned activities such as going to the gym, playing disc-golf and traveling to their hometowns.
NITE LITE BURNS OUT,
CHANGES SOCIAL SCENE
While some may frown upon the use of alcohol and party culture in college communities, Jeff McAlpin, a professor of sociology and criminology at Northwestern, said these activities can actually have a positive effect on the student community.
McAlpin said bars geared toward college students, like the former Nite Lite, provide localized spots for increased socialization among students in an organic way. He also said that, while private parties can do this to a degree, they promote more isolation between different social groups across campus.
“[The Nite Lite] was always a place to go to socialize with a lot of other people,” McAlpin said. “It was just a kind of a central gathering place for young people in town.”
Since the closing of the Nite Lite in 2018, socialization among students has noticeably decreased, especially when looking at involvement with school activities, McAlpin said. He said remnants of the COVID-19 pandemic may also be contributing to this.
While places like Cookie’s Bowl and Cafe and The Bull Smokehouse and Saloon have provided different locations for students to socialize, they have not captured the popularity of the Nite Lite, McAlpin said.
This sentiment was echoed by students who said they wish Alva had a club-like bar for college students.
Some explicitly said they wanted the Nite Lite to reopen.
Rosco Setzer, a senior majoring in agricultural education, said he would like a place in Alva with a more club-like atmosphere, similar to the Nite Lite, that offers a more social experience.
“The Nite Lite was fun,” Setzer said. “I wish that was open still because not everyone can drink, but no one wants to go to the Bull and just chill and dance. It’s somewhere for everyone to just have fun and not only drink, I guess.”
BOWLING HAS DECLINED
Drinking alcohol, partying and attending bars is not a new phenomenon among college students.
However, it has decreased in recent years. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the number of college students who binge-drink alcohol has decreased by 24% between 1991 and 2017.
A common argument for alcohol consumption at Northwestern is that there are few other activities for young people to do in Alva. However, alternative options may not be of as much interest to students.
John Cook, owner of Cookie’s Bowl and Cafe, said that even during good weeks, the highest number of college students who come to bowl would be between 30 and 50. Cook, who has owned the bowling alley for 20 years, said he believes the decrease in students attending has likely been caused at least in part because of changes in social behaviors following the pandemic. He said he hopes its popularity among students will bounce back over time.
Cook said having places for students such as the bowling alley and the Rialto movie theater are important.
“I would say it gives them a safe environment,” he said. “[Students are] less likely to see alcohol and drug abuse, maybe, as opposed to darker bars and stuff like that. … That would just be my opinion. It’s more a youth-friendly type of atmosphere.”
When the Nite Lite was still in operation, more college students went to the bowling alley before going to the club, Cook said.
BULL STAMPEDES ONTO SCENE
In the absence of the Nite Lite, the Bull Smokehouse and Saloon, commonly called “the Bull,” has become the most popular nightlife business for Northwestern students.
Owner Pete Nesseralla said he wants to make the Bull a place for everyone to enjoy a drink and relax.
During busy seasons like rodeo, the Bull is packed, he said. Rodeo is different from other sports because the cowboys and cowgirls have to drive themselves and bring their trailers, and when they travel alone, they can explore the area. When the rodeo is in Alva, the Bull has more people than usual because of the visiting rodeo participants in town, Nesseralla said.
Football season is a little less busy because of the win or lose rule. If the football team wins, the players are allowed to go out to the Bull. But if it’s a loss, they can’t.
Nesseralla said he has many college students working as bartenders at the Bull, so a simple question makes it easy for him to understand how the night will go according to whose friends are coming or not.
Taylor Songster, a bartender and student-athlete, said she enjoys working there because of the atmosphere and friendly customers. When she isn’t playing soccer, she is hanging out with her friends at the Bull or working behind the bar, she said.
Songster has been on the Northwestern soccer team for three years and likes that her team can plan a night at the Bull to bond for the evening. The environment allows other people to mingle and make new friends with each other, she said.
“We go celebrate our teammates’ birthdays with dinner, and then we typically bring a cake to share,” Songster said.
Koby Hudson, a senior baseball player, said he often visited the Bull during his first two years of college. However, he does not venture out much anymore and said he would rather stay home and play video games with his friends.
“After going so many times, it gets kind of repetitive to do the same thing over and over again,” Hudson said.
Hudson recently learned that beer and food prices were raised at the restaurant, and like other college students, he said he doesn’t want to spend a lot of money.
“I am about to graduate, so I want to save money before I leave,” Hudson said.
Most of the regular customers keep coming to the Bull despite the raised prices because of the atmosphere, Nesseralla said.
ON CAMPUS AT NIGHT
While places like the Bull, house parties and restaurants make up the primary places for nightlife off campus, students on campus have other experiences.
Nightlife in the dorms is different from day to day. Andrea Becerra, a freshman at Northwestern and a resident assistant for Cunningham Hall, said the resident assistants try to host at least one event per month for residents. What the event is and how well it is advertised determine the outcome.
Two of the most successful events have been the serial vs. cereal event, where residents had a game night and watched serial killer documentaries while eating cereal, and a scoop and spoons night, where they ate ice cream and played the game of spoons.
“On the weekends, the dorms at night are usually busy because if they go out to a party or hangout with friends, they get back pretty late,” Becerra said. “But during the week, it’s usually quiet by 10 p.m. because of school the next day.”
Cunningham Hall, a women’s dormitory, rarely has problems regarding drugs and alcohol with the residents; the dormitory has more problems with people following the quiet hours rule and having guests stay past visiting hours, Becerra said.
Harlie Whisenant, a senior education major from Hollis, said going out in Alva with her friends reminds her of her hometown, and that’s what she loves about it.
“We usually meet at someone’s house and hang out for a while and then go to the Bull all together,” she said.
Whisenant said she likes to go out and spend time with others, but she also enjoys hanging out at home and listening to records.
GETTING OUT OF TOWN
Whisenant is one of the many college students who likes to get out of town on the weekends, and Stillwater is usually her first pick, she said. Whisenant said she goes to see a lot of her hometown friends that attend Oklahoma State University.
Whisenant is not the only Northwestern student who likes to travel out of Alva. According to the student survey, which allowed students to select various places they travel to, 51% of students like to go home on the weekends, 38% of them go to Stillwater and 30% of them go to Oklahoma City. The cities have more options for bars and clubs, and most students have friends who attend those colleges. Some other respondents said they only go home for breaks.
Grant McCook, a Northwestern junior majoring in health and sports science who is one of the residents at the “quarterback house,” is used to having a full house on the weekends. Many people gather there before and after going to the bar to play games and visit with each other, he said.
Some students say there’s nothing to do in Alva, but the quarterbacks always find something, whether it’s bowling, golfing or playing the Wii as a group, McCook said.
“It’s usually pretty messy when we wake up the next morning, but it’s worth it because everyone has so much fun,” McCook said.