By Angela Pace
Wads and wads of newspaper, phonebook paper, lined paper, graph paper and toilet paper go flying through the air every Sunday night.
For Stanford University students, especially freshmen, Sunday night 'Flicks,' or movies, are a vital part of the social experience.
Akin to our own Varsity Theater, the memorial auditorium holds 1,700 students as they scream, whoop and yell at the screen.
According to the Stanford student organization''s Web site, the screaming and the paper fights are long-standing traditions dating back to 1937.
Alarice Lacanlale, 20, a junior from Manila, Philippines, majoring in international relations, is a student at Stanford and for her, the movies were just part of the freshman experience.
'Before the movie starts, they have a big paper fight to release stress and just yell,' Lacanlale said. 'Sometimes it hurts because people get violent and they can get mad.'
Stanford is full of rituals and traditions, and the 'primal scream' during finals week is a just one example.
'At midnight every night during the dead week before finals, everyone screams as loud as they can,' Lacanlale said.
Aside from the usual weekend 'partying,' Stanford students have plenty of activities to look forward to during the year, Lacanlale said.
Students can take a shuttle to the nearby city, Palo Alto and San Francisco, for the day, Lacanlale said.
'My friends and I meet up at the ''CoHo,'' or coffee house on campus sometimes and it''s a popular place to go,' she said.
Unlike BYU, 91 percent of the students at Stanford live on campus and for that reason, most activities tend to be campus related, Lacanlale said.
Leah Peterson, 20, a junior from Salt Lake City, majoring in human biology, attended Stanford but now attends BYU. She said BYU and Stanford are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to social life.
'First of all, dating is not even a part of your social experience there,' Peterson said. 'No one comes home and says, ''oh my gosh, I just went out on a date!'''
Peterson said the best way to meet people is by living in the dorms during freshman year and by going to class.
'Stanford is really campus oriented,' she said. 'People are really friendly though, and you make friends as soon as you move into a house.'
Although there are a lot of things to do, some students still think the social scene at Stanford is lacking.
Jan Piotrowski, 19, a sophomore from New York, majoring in industrial engineering, said he questions the quality of Stanford girls.
'It''s kind of a joke that ''brains and beauty don''t mix'' at Stanford,' Piotrowski said.
He said because Stanford is such a demanding academic school, more girls study than go out on the weekends.
'Sometimes guys say ''pretty girls don''t party,'' but it''s because academics are everyone''s highest priority,' Piotrowksy said.