Not always merry and bright: Students share their gripes
While celebrating the holiday season, an open-mic forum for complaining about college life may not come to mind. However, at Utah State University’s Gripe Night, this is what students do.
Gripe Night is a Utah State tradition where students get to share their frustrations openly with USU’s Government Relations Council. This year’s event was held in the TSC on Dec. 4.
This year’s emcee was Jake Russell, a member of the GRC and sophomore studying public health. Dressed in a Santa suit, Russell kicked off the night with the rules for participating.
“Gripe Night rules because we have rules,” Russell said. “First rule is that we don’t want any profanity. Second, try to limit your gripe to under two minutes. Last, we don’t want any gripes about specific people; you can say stuff about counselors in general or people in general, but no specifics.”
Then the floor was opened to the public. Students wasted no time waiting, with a line starting almost instantly.
Gripes covered a variety of subjects, including parking woes, tearing down the TSC, required discussion posts, late grading from professors, broken machines in the fieldhouse and the construction of a new business building.
Stockton Benson, a first-year student studying physics teaching, shared multiple gripes onstage. He joked that there’s too much to gripe about when it comes to being a college student, such as maintenance issues and the USU Snapchat story.
“My blinds don’t work, and I’m tired of it,” Benson said. “I need my privacy like we all do.”
Rudy Garcia, a math education major, also shared a few gripes about climate change, leaf blowers, cutting down trees for a new business building and misogyny.
“The university keeps blowing away all the freaking fallen leaves on the ground. I want to hear that crunch,” Garcia said. “I also just want to gripe about all the misogynists out there. Please respect our ladies.”
Even hosts got in on the fun, with Russell mentioning no water bottle filler on the third floor of the library and a serious lack of ducks in the TSC fountain. He also broke his own rules with a very specific gripe about a certain Christmas hater.
“I know I said not to get specific with anybody,” Russell said. “But I really hate people who name their dogs Max. I really hate people who steal presents. I hate people with little hearts. I hate green people.”
Just then, who should creep up behind Russell but the Grinch himself. After a brief brawl with Santa Russell, the Grinch tackled him to the ground. He then added his own gripe to the list.
“I hate people who are all bark and no bite,” the Grinch said.
One person who hoped to put a positive spin on the night was Alec Stoeger, a first-year student studying computer science.
“I actually don’t have a gripe,” Stoeger said. “But I wanted to throw a ray of sunshine in this. I really like these couches back here. Alright, now back to your regularly scheduled griping.”
However, amongst all these gripes, there was one sticking out. The GRC is working to combat some policies that would put limits on or eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in state schools.
Throughout the night, students were asked to fill out forms and write letters about what DEI programs have done for them. The GRC will then bring these to policymakers in hopes of keeping these programs.
Will Ride, a GRC member and political science junior, pleaded with Aggies to help in the cause.
“Fill out an ‘I’m an Aggie’ slip so we can give it to our legislators,” Ride said.
In between rants from students, people were allowed to play minigames to earn prizes like a milk frother or a tortilla blanket. Games included cup pong bingo and candy cane crane.
However, the grand prize was a coveted Amazon Echo dot for the top gripe. Throughout the night, listeners could vote on their favorite gripe using a Google form.
This year’s winner was first year student Finley Borgmann, who is double majoring in computational mathematics and international studies. His winning gripe covered the lack of a back door to the library.
“I like to study in the library, so that’s a bit of a problem for me,” Borgmann said. “I didn’t know so many people found that relatable.”
The GRC said Gripe Night is a very unifying experience.
“I’ve loved getting to listen to the complaints that all the other students have and realizing how much we have in common and agree about,” Ride said.
Russell added how fun it was and thanked GRC leader and student advocate Tyson Packer for organizing the night.
“It was so much fun. It’s so high energy,” Russell said. “I loved helping people get up there and gripe.”