Drunken bar behavior is common with college students, particularly as Halloween approaches. Looking back to the Friday, October 26, 1984, issue of the Northern Star, readers were more vocal than usual with opinions regarding such peace disturbances.

The Letters to the Editor section spanned three pages, all responses from either angry or immensely amused students. Following Homecoming, the editorial board responded unfavorably to disruptive crowds at The Jungle, a bar once frequented by NIU students.

“Police were dispatched to The Jungle late Monday night because two men with their arms linked together reportedly were running into people and knocking them over,” the editorial board said. “Is this kind of behavior really necessary?”

The board remembered a similar situation from the week prior.

“During another Homecoming festivity, an additional incident was cited at The Jungle. A group of men decided to engage in chicken-fighting on the dance floor to the song ‘Macho Man.’”

Frequenting bars in 1984 was as much of a tension release as today’s NIU students enjoy. The difference is police are no longer called on behalf of dancing drunkards, but more so for fighting, brawling drunkards.

The majority of the remaining letters responded to the 1984 presidential election between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan. Instead of responding to Star news, readers used the paper to debate on behalf of the candidate of their choice.

“Under Reagan, over seven million new jobs were created,” said junior journalism major Jeff Wisniewski in a 1984 letter. “That’s great. It balances out the seven million people who have entered the poverty level since 1980.”

Readers were outspoken with political responses but backed arguments with facts.

Professors were equally apt to share their political views. The frowns they would receive today were clearly not a factor in 1984, as physics professor Allen D. Weaver wrote an article with aims to persuade votes against supporting Reagan.

“Most people are not aware that the ultra-right extremists have now taken over the Republican party,” Weaver said. “Led by Ronald Reagan and his circle of friends, they froze out all moderate conservative Republicans at their recent convention and wrote an extreme right platform which is contrary in almost all respects to traditional Republicanism. One observer at the convention commented, ‘you get just a whiff of fascism.’”

Other news for the week featured shoplifting as a prominent threat to local businesses. Patrick Conboy and Donald Henderson, both attorneys with Students’ Legal Assistance, wrote a piece to the editorial board. In case NIU students were unaware of what constituted illegal activity, Conboy and Henderson defined the offense before listing the penalties for such behavior. Instead of writing to the students with a tone of respect for the college maturities, the tone of the article more closely resembled that of parents scolding their child.

“Besides the obvious ethical impropriety, retail theft and writing bad checks can result in humiliation and severe punishment.”