Where Fun Goes To Light Things On Fire

By Scott Smith in News on Nov 21, 2005 6:10PM

While reading the news this morning, Chicagoist saw one more reminder of why we’re glad we went to a state school.

The Tribune and Sun-Times are reporting Julita Groszko, 31. was “charged with two counts of aggravated arson, three counts of attempted aggravated arson and felony criminal damage to property” after allegedly setting fires on the University of Chicago’s campus. Upon questioning, she revealed to police that she set the fires because the work at U of C was really hard and she had yet to get a job thanks to a degree in chemistry.

Contrary to popular belief, Chicagoist isn’t completely heartless. We know what it’s like to spend si…er, four years pursuing a degree only to discover that you’re not working in the field you thought you’d be or making as much money as you expected. You usually discover this when you experience rampant joy over a sale on ramen noodles at the Jewel. And when life got rough for us, we turned to fire too. Only it was firewater.

Speaking of drunkenness, college administrators are expressing concerns about students revealing personal information or posting embarrassing photos on their blogs. Chicagoist wasn’t aware that administrators were still in the business of acting en loco parentis (Latin for “in charge of wiping your ass when you shit”), but according to the story “quelling the booming interest is turning into a huge task.” Yeah, it’s so tough these days to get kids to stop having interests. Damn that MTV.

Much like their real-world (or Real World) counterparts, college students are going to do dumb things like post pictures of themselves while drunk. College administrators can spend all the time and money they want trying to keep them from doing those dumb things but they’ll probably just find more creative dumb things to do instead.

Some universities publish publicly available directories that provide plenty of useful information to potential stalkers and are easier to locate than someone’s blog. If colleges were serious about security, they might start by looking in the mirror first.