Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
Following three weeks of planning and the implementation of unexpected new attendance policies, Occidental’s annual Winter Formal occupied Branca Patio with a Beatles cover band, a student DJ and a guest list of 700 students. The event, which was sponsored by Programming Board and the Residence Hall Association (RHA), differed from last year’s Winter Formal primarily in that the event’s organizers were informed that only 700 people could attend.
According to Programming Board Manager Brett Safford (senior), Programming Board and RHA started to plan for the event as of last November. The bulk of the planning, however took place in the three weeks prior to the event. He explained that Environmental Health and Safety Manager Bruce Steele finalized the number of students who could attend a few weeks before the dance. “The reasoning behind that was that there had been concerns last year that the event got too full,” Safford said.
RHA Rangeview Representative Sabrina Strand (sophomore) cited alcohol concerns as a major reason for the College’s decision to limit the number of students who could attend as well as the decision to create a new door policy that did not allow students to return to the dance once they had left. According to Strand, administrators wanted to “curb the amount of alcohol consumption” seen at previous dances. Strand said that administrators noticed that a higher rate of intoxicated students attend events when they are allowed to leave and come back, saying that administrators speculated some students were hiding alcohol outside of the dances and drinking before returning.
RHA Programming Director Brenda McNary (sophomore) and Strand helped organize the dance and expressed concern at the capped number of students allowed to attend the event. “RHA strives to make events for the whole Occidental community and we would have loved to have everyone attend,” McNary said. She explained that the organizers suggested several ideas in order to permit all students to go to the dance. One idea was to hold the event off campus and provide students with transportation to and from the dance. Another suggestion McNary mentioned was that the organizers thought of renting tents and setting up the dance in the Quad area. McNary pointed to time and budget constraints as reasons for not following through with any of the suggested alternatives, saying it was “hard to move out of the boundaries.” Hosting the event off campus would have meant the sponsors would have had to rent charter buses as well as pay for off-campus catering. “I would go so far as to say $10,000,” McNary said of the extra funds that would have been needed for these ideas to be realized.
One concern for organizers was that students would show up to Branca Patio without a ticket. According to Safford, the organizers sought to alleviate this problem by reserving a few tickets to be handed out at the front door. Although there were concerns among some students that many people would not be able to attend the event because they were not aware that they needed a ticket, Safford said that Programming Board “made a good attempt to let people know. People weren’t too negative about the ticket situation,” he said. By Thursday, there were less than 100 tickets available.
Safford explained that Programming Board began planning for the event before the capacity was finalized, but that the food served was ordered after the number was picked in order to coincide with the expected attendance. The array of chocolate covered strawberries and apple cider at the dance was meant to accommodate 700 guests.
As far as planning for future dances, Safford said that the Programming Board staff will be looking to see how this year’s Winter Formal turned out to plan for next year’s dance, as well as the upcoming event, Da Getaway, which is annually sponsored by Programming Board.
The Winter Formal offered students a new take on dances by starting the evening off with the live Beatles cover band One Way Ticket. “We wanted to change up the entertainment,” McNary said. Following the live band, Thomas Carrol (senior) acted as DJ under the alias DJ Dreamweavrz. “We tried to bring a different side of Oxy out,” Strand said.
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