Senior events canned due to lack of interest

By Olivia Biagi
Collegian Editor
April 9, 2008

Two months after the university cancelled Senior Week and said the week’s events would be incorporated into the school year, lack of interest has forced the cancellation of the first two scheduled events.

Erin Brodbeck - Senior events, such as the Atlantic City trip, got trashed due to lack of interest.

Senior week was cancelled in the first place because of housing issues.

“The university has for a few years been very uncomfortable with many things that occur in housing with seniors at the end of the year,” Associate Dean of Students Anna Allen said.

“The university could not continue to condone the [behavior] in housing.”

According to Allen, the university decided that seniors were drinking too heavily and causing building damages, as well as becoming physical with each other, and thus the Commencement Week housing was officially cancelled Jan. 22. Allen cited incidents where students were intoxicated and fell down steSps and cracked their teeth, showed up for events “completely out of control,” and got sick during commencement ceremonies.

“All activities that aren’t done in excess are fine,” Allen said , “but there has not been one year in the past four or five where there hasn’t been excessive drinking, frequent abuse of students to [other] students, absolute disrespect to property, staff and each other.”

According to Allen, seniors at one time had been housed in the St. Miguel Townhouses during Commencement Week. However, the behavior of seniors began to get out of hand, so housing was changed to St. Neumann Hall, where Allen states, “it never got in hand.”

“The amount of alcohol being consumed [during Commencement Week] is unhealthy,” Allen said. “All you have to do is look at the condition of the building when students leave it.”

In previous years, the university sign-in policy for alcohol had been in place during Commencement Week. Seniors with proper identification could sign in up to one case of beer, or one-fifth of liquor, within a 24-hour period. However, in an attempt to curtail the excessive drinking, the university decided to cut back the policy.

“In the last couple years, we started to curtail the hours residents could drink in public areas from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., maybe 2 a.m.,” Director of Community Standards and Support Mark Badstubner said.

Along with the restriction, alcohol sign-in was reduced to one case of beer or one-fifth of liquor for the entire week per resident. However, there were “significant problems,” Badstubner said.

“Even though seniors were warned that their bags would be searched, they still attempted to sneak in alcohol,” Badstubner said. “The searches were not random, and the majority of students were asked to open their bags.”

Now, not only has their week been cancelled, but the events that were planned especially for the seniors are being called off left and right.

The first event, which would have taken place March 27, was a bus trip to the adult arcade, Dave & Buster’s. The second, which was scheduled for April 5, was a bus trip to Atlantic City. By mid-afternoon April 3, there were only seven students signed up for the Atlantic City trip.

“To date, the ones we have offered have not had enough sign-ups to warrant going,” said Allen.

It appears that there may be two main reasons why seniors are not participating in the free events planned for them.

“As a senior, and I’m also an RA and involved in other organizations, I don’t have time to go to the events,” senior ISBT major Sean Houlihan said. “So, I feel like it’s kind of a cop out.”

In response to Houlihan’s comments, Allen stated: “That is a factor, and if housing that week in between finals and Commencement allowed students to socialize as adults it would still go on. The facts show otherwise.

“It makes no sense to cluster [the events] when [seniors] are not here.”

However, for Houlihan and other La Salle seniors, the spring semester is a busy time. Between formals, student organization responsibilities and preparing for post-graduation, many seniors may be too busy to attend any of the events planned. Another factor may be the advertising.

“All the advertising for it was really announcements on the portal and fliers,” Houlihan said. “But to me, I don’t use the portal anymore. Most of the seniors don’t live in the dorms. There’s really no chance for seniors to even know about the events.”

“Everything’s been advertised in the same manner as everything else on campus,” Allen said. “If they worked for IBM, they’d be required to go to their company Web site. Students have to be responsible to want to get the information.”

In addition to the portal and fliers, Allen said that information could be found on the La Salle Web site and in the “Grad Guide.”

Another controversy surrounding senior events occurred earlier in the semester when the Resident Students’ Association attempted to plan a bus trip for seniors to Finnegan’s Wake—a bar.

“Basically, one of the members has an internship with Philly Tonight and they offered to give us a Happy Hour at Finnegan’s,” Houlihan said. “RSA wanted to do something for seniors because [the university] took away 100 Days Dinner and senior week.”

“We brought it up at our weekly meeting and our advisor [Badstubner] said if we tried to go through with it, it would be shot down immediately by the administration,” junior communication major and director of area relations for RSA Steve Rendall added. “We tried to see if there was a way around it, but it wasn’t worth it.”

According to Rendall, RSA members were told that any event involving alcohol would not be approved by the administration.

“It was a good discussion,” Badstubner said, “and it shows there is some disagreement about what the university can and should sponsor.”

“We’re trying to do this to give something to seniors, and we can’t,” Rendall said, “And the next day they put up fliers about the casino trip, which if you sit down in a casino, they give you free alcohol.”

“The bus policy prohibits the university from transporting students to events where the principle activity is drinking,” Allen said. She noted, however, that the policy can be exempted by the Dean of Students as long as the university alcohol policies were in place.

“If you were 21 and you had I.D., you could get a drink, but that wasn’t the point in going,” Allen said in reference to the Dave & Buster’s and casino trips.

With only a few more weeks left in the semester, there are still four more senior-only events planned, one of which will occur before finals. April 18 is Dinner with the Deans in the Union Ballroom, followed by a Phillies game May 4 at the cost of $5. May 6 and 7 is the senior retreat and finally May 10 is the Graduation Gala in Treetops for $25.

“For the students who absolutely just wanted to be with their friends for a week without any stress, it is really a shame that they can’t live here,” Allen said. “But the sad fact is that in recent history, no senior class has been able to do that in any kind of responsible way that doesn’t bring serious consequences to each other.

“Are we going to wait for a student to die before we react to something we know isn’t right?”

biagio1@lasalle.edu