Dances harder to plan post policy change
By TERESA FRALISH
Associate News Editor
After planning dances under the new policy that moved them out of the dorms, students and staff disagreed on how the change affected dorm spirit and enthusiasm.
"We've had a lot of failures. We cancelled our first dance," said Abhishek Goyal, co-president of O'Neill Hall. "I think the policies are a complete failure. The dorm spirit has gone down."
Because of a lack of enthusiasm, Goyal said the dorm had to reschedule its first dance for another date and had difficulty getting students to attend.
"We forced people to go. Freshmen were not interested," he said. "We generally have two dances by now."
Goyal said he was also concerned about how the dorm would fund its dances even with the additional $1,000 provided by Student Affairs.
"We used most of our funding for the first dance," he said. "Now I don't think we will break even for the second dance."
Jen Majcina, resident assistant in Badin Hall, said her dorm experienced some problems planning for their dances. One of their dances was supposed to be held in the South Dining Hall, but the same room had been double-booked.
"We ended up having to cancel the dance," she said.
At both of the dances Badin had held so far, Majcina said attendance was down compared to last year; however, she felt that the actual locations where Badin's dances were held worked fairly well.
Majcina said that Badin just completed a new social space that would have worked very well for holding dances.
"It's really disappointing not to be able to have dances in there," she said.
Others were concerned about the amount of funding that dorms had available for dances. "If the University decides to keep this plan they're going to have to give us a lot more money," said Matt Palmer-Ball, president of Siegfried Hall. "One of the recommendations that I've made to Hall Presidents Council is that [the University] increase that $1,000."
Katy Ryan, one Farley Hall's dance commissioners, also felt that having dances out of the dorms strained her hall's finances.
"I don't think we could have had our dances without that $1,000. South Dining Hall was extremely expensive," she said. "They charged us $200 just to move five tables and they wouldn't let us move them ourselves."
Ryan also said that attendance was down for Farley's dances, often with less than 50 percent participation.
Palmer-Ball said he saw a lack of enthusiasm for the dances in Siegfried. "[The freshmen] were really hard to motivate at the beginning of the year."
Joe Reimer, assistant rector for Carroll Hall, felt that dances had gone fairly well for his dorm.
"It seemed like [the students] had a good time," he said.
Reimer said that the dorm rented buses to transport students from the dorm to the clubhouse at the Warren Golf Course.
At Carroll's dances, Reimer said there were not any major problems with students drinking or becoming sick.
"For us drinking hasn't been an issue at the dances," said Reimer.
Cavanaugh Hall also had similar success with their dorm's dances, which were held at the LaFortune Ballroom and the Monogram Room at the Joyce Center.
"They were definitely well-attended," said Paula Garcia, Cavanaugh Hall resident assistance.
Garcia also said that there were fewer problems with alcohol at Cavanaugh's dances. "We had like one case of someone getting sick. I didn't have to worry at all," she said.
Becca Davidson, the rector of Breen-Phillips Hall, said her dorm's dances had been fairly successful overall.
"I got a very positive feedback from both the women and the men," said Davidson.
The rector said her dorm held one dance at the LaFortune Ballroom and another at the Palais Royale, the newly renovated ballroom connected to the Morris Performing Arts Center in downtown South Bend.
Davidson noted that previous problems with alcohol in past years were significantly improved.
"We had about 500 people [at the Palais Royale] and we only had one alcohol incident," said Davidson. "I think that's very unprecedented."
However, the dorm did have problems with high costs of catering at the Palais Royale, which were much higher than fees for Catering by Design, the company that must be used for on-campus events.
"Our contention was that it was just too pricey," Davidson said.
Jim Lewis, the rector of Carroll Hall, agreed with Davidson on the success of this year's dances.
"I think we've had a pretty good experience with our two dorm dances," Lewis said. Lewis said that the new policy had put the focus back on enjoying the dances and not on excessive drinking.
Kate Nagengast contributed to this report.
Contact Teresa Fralish at tfralish@nd.edu
All News Stories for Thursday, March 20, 2003
