U-M Cracks Playboy's Top Party Schools List as President Tells Greeks to Tone It Down

The party culture taints some of the excitement of attending a game at the Big House at the University of Michigan, one of Playboy’s 2015 Top Party Schools, the U-M president said last week. (Photo via Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

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And the top party school in the United States is …

Not the University of Michigan, though the Ann Arbor school did make — barely — the Top 10 of Playboy magazine’s 2015 Top Party Schools list.

Whether U-M’s No. 10 ranking is something to brag about or apologize for depends on your perspective, of course.

Last week, U-M President Mark Schlissel met with representatives of the sororities and fraternities and asked the Greek organizations to tone down their revelry, according to the Michigan Daily.

It was the first meeting of its kind in the 170-year history of Greek organizations on the Ann Arbor campus. Schlissel said the party culture is a stain not only on students’ reputations, but also those of U-M alumni.

“The value of their degrees are gonna go down because the reputation of the University of Michigan won’t be the excitement in the Big House or our teams doing well under our fantastic new coach,” Schlissel said.

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“It’s not gonna be the kids who receive the Rhodes Scholarships and the Fulbright Scholarships, and the famous professors who do the work that you’re going to get reflected on for, or the National Medal for the Arts that our faculty won this past week. It’s going to be the ‘Shmacked’ videos,” Schlissel said. “So it’s really up to you what the value of your education is going to be, what the reputation of this institution’s going to be.”

“Oh, ‘the Michigan difference.’ The haughty catchphrase works because it’s true: Wolverines study hard and party harder. At ‘the Pit,/ a shared backyard between frat houses and an epicenter for Saturday-morning tailgating, students get advanced degrees in Wolverine superiority, still going strong almost 20 years after its last football championship. House parties abound in Ann Arbor; if one gets shut down, students roll the kegs to the party down the street. Win or lose, Michiganders still booze.”

So, who did U-M “lose” to in the rankings? Here’s the list:

1. Ohio University
2. University of Iowa
3. Florida State University
4. Tulane University
5. University of Illinois
6. University of Texas
7. Syracuse University
8. University of Wisconsin
9. University of Mississippi
10. University of Michigan

The magazine’s editors look at a variety of factors, including access to nightlife and musical events, and creativity when planning social gatherings. A reader’s poll and feedback from Playboy’s more than 28 million social media fans were also considered, along with information from the National Center for Education Statistics, the NCAA, and the US Economic Census. according to a news release.