For instance, "Night of Decadence" is easily the best-known party night of the year at Rice University in Houston, One of the residential college at the university hosts the annual NOD, as it's affectionate.

And true to its name, NOD never fails to deliver a good share of genital imagery and alcohol, according to Adam J. Thornton, a junior at Rice.

"It's the Weiss College Fest of lewe and lischilous behavior, says Thornton. So much some says, that it was "rated one of the ten best college parties in Play boy magazine in 1982."

The "Garden of Delight," this year's theme featured one man wearing a three-and-a half foot phallus with a green "electron" glowing on the end and a woman wearing an ID taped to each breast.

Past themes, Thornton says, have included "Seues is Loose: the Cat in the Hat/ Would you, Could you with a goat," "Dante's Inferno," "Co-eds in chains" and "The Trojan War."

Party-goers at Bard College in Annandale-on-Husdon, N.Y., say Halloween is a good time for a first-year "orientation."

"Almost all of the first-years trip [try LSD]," says Nathan A. Fackler, a former Bard student, of their annual party.

Party Rules

No matter how wild campus wide parties at other schools may get, Harvard students know too well the constraints on hosts here.

DiCiccio says the masquciade was dry because of the council's strict alcohol policy. It does not allow subsidized events to advertise alcohol in other houses.

Still, the council has been increasingly successful in supporting campus wide parties, says Council Chair Malcolm A. Heinicke '93.

Heinicke says the council's policy on parties has changed significantly in recent years. It now supports two different types of gatherings that are geared to attract the most students possible.

The council hosts large events like the annual casino night and hires both comedians and bands to play in Memorial Hall, Heinicke says.

"These events are open to everyone on campus who pays the entrance fee and are intended to bring all different types of students together," says Heinicke. "We are going to go with what works, take the proven winners from last year and expand on them."

In addition to hosting these functions, the council now subsidizes house events too, offering to match triple the amount of money raised by the house.