When I was younger, I lived near a college campus with a prominent social scene that I’m going to call a “coffee culture.”

In this coffee culture, students headed over to the nearest coffee shop on weekend nights to relax and recover from the past week. They might bring a couple friends for good conversation and spend a few hours talking about what’s on their minds about life, school or whatever. There might be live music — normally jazz — that you could lose yourself in with a nice warm cup of something — be it coffee, hot chocolate, chai tea or anything in between. On other nights, the coffee culture types would head into the city to check out the orchestra, some theater, sketch comedy or something else interesting and new. Bars were visited and parties were held, of course, but they were special occasions and not the norm.

In contrast, at Iowa State we’re living in what I’d call a culture of alcohol. A large majority of the social scene involves getting wasted; house and dorm parties abound on Thursday through Saturday nights, and the lines to get into the bars on Welch Avenue are dozens of people long. We riot and throw lampposts into lakes when we have our alcohol taken away, and you can count on at least one elevator and one window being broken in a dormitory on any given weekend.

There’s no biological difference between ISU students and the students near my hometown. The students I lived near simply chose to do other, less alcoholic things.

Before I seem like a neo-prohibitionist, let me first state that I don’t have a problem with alcohol or drinking.

I can advocate that going out and getting drunk can be a great time; the problem lies in the sheer frequency and reliability that many students display in consistently getting drunk on Friday and Saturday (and sometimes Thursday) nights. Often I see friends heading out night after night, coming back missing a shoe and rolling along the walls instead of walking.

One of the two coffee shops in the Campustown area, Santa Fe Expresso, shut down this year; a lone coffee shop on a block teeming with bars. I visited Santa Fe a few times on weekend nights before it shut down, and every time it was nearly deserted, minus a few friends and myself. I’d peek outside and see lines of people filling the street to get into bars, but not a soul heading to Santa Fe. Compared to university coffee shops back home, which were flooded with people until 2 a.m. at the very earliest, I was dumbfounded as to why nobody was inside. The shop even closed at 10 p.m. because it wasn’t going to be getting enough business past then to warrant staying open.

Just days after Santa Fe closed down, advertisements appeared in the boarded windows appeared promoting a “coyote-ugly-style” bar that was going to replace it.

I realize that everyone has the liberty to pick his or her own lifestyle, but I’d like to take the opportunity to promote the coffee culture. Stomping Grounds, the only coffee shop within walking distance from campus, is a great place to spend a Friday or Saturday night. Live music is usually playing, and they’ve always got quality service and great drinks.

For a less coffee-flavored experience, there are still countless activities to do in and around the university on a weekly basis. For example, this upcoming weekend is the second and final weekend to see “The Secret Garden,” a musical performed by university students. It’s running at the Fisher Theater, and will be playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

If musical theater isn’t your thing, attending ISU AfterDark events are another great way to spend your time. ISU AfterDark is a student organization that runs late-night entertainment every weekend. Past events include a “casino” in which chips were converted to raffle tickets, which were drawn every hour to pick the winner of dozens of prizes (including a stereo system and a DVD player) and comedians, including Steve Hofstetter this past Sunday. A list of its events is available on its Web site www.savp.iastate.edu/isuafterdark.

I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg of possibilities for your weekend nights.

Although parties are great fun, most of the time you’re better off going out in a normal state of mind and experiencing something that can’t be found at the bottom of a bottle.