This is in response to the column “Ring Dance Draws Crowd, restricted by fire marshal” (CT, Mar. 30), in which the class of 2011 president went on record to say that the Ring Dance was a “total success.” Perhaps it indeed was a success in Commonwealth Ballroom. Unfortunately, less than 20 percent of the junior class got to experience it.
I am a senior this year, and I was appalled at how poorly Ring Dance was handled. Many juniors were denied access to the dance, while several freshmen and sophomores got their chance at a tradition that didn’t concern them yet. Because two women in our party had earlier obligations, our group, which included a member of the junior class, arrived just after 9 p.m. We waited patiently in line until 10:45 p.m., at which time we were told to go home. Not once did a member of the class of 2011 SGA team or Ring Dance Committee notify us as to why we were in this line.
And yet, when the time came to be rejected admittance, a member of that very committee went person to person, escorted by the tallest police officer in the crew. I overheard him say that he wished Virginia Tech had notified people of this sooner. I’m sorry, but that was your responsibility. The Ring Committee knew well in advance about this strict measure, as seen by the newly imposed wristbands. How difficult would it have been to simply post a notification in the Collegiate Times? Or maybe a Facebook event that spelled out the new restrictions? Sadly, no one took responsibility, and hundreds of juniors left Squires Student Center alienated from a tradition that was for them. The class of 2011 deserves an apology, not the passing of blame.
John Stevens
Senior
Math education major
A version of this article appeared in the Apr 1 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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John, Ring Dance is not affiliated with the Student Government Association (SGA). The class system is independent from SGA.
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Ok so let me aska practical question.
Ring Dance has never had this problem before, there are no tickets sold, so how would they know that three times the amount of people would show up to this one then in years past?
And when that did happen, what were they supposed to do? Move the whole thing that night to a larger ballroom? Make an announcement telling Juniors to stay and everyone else to get out?
No they did what they should have done, maybe they could've notified better to the people in line, and now that they have seen this they can plan ahead for a bigger room next year.
In reality there are what, 3k students in the class? so only 33% would get to experience it anyway if only Juniors showed up, and they all went.
Get over yourselves, stop whining and looking for an apology. If it ruined your life that bad then join the ring dance committee to make sure it never happens to any other "poor" souls in the future.
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Here's the problem, the same number of people came that always come - it's just that this year they decided to enforce the fire code (they never have before). So they knew to expect 2-3,000 people, AND they knew that only 1,000 could get in. So why not tell people ahead of time of the restriction and expected issue so people would KNOW to come early if they wanted to get in? The screwup is definitely on the committee, they knew more people would come than they could accommodate and simply neglected to inform people.
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Chris,
I wrote this opinion piece, and I can hardly say that I wrote this for myself. Not once did I say that I was upset that I did not get to attend...the Class of 2010 Ring Dance was last year. Not once did I claim that the fire marshal was in the wrong, either.
However, waiting in line for such a long while with no prior or current communication was frustrating. And then to have the people in charge of that very communication pass the blame was extremely irritating. I am sure that you would feel the exact same way in the same circumstance. If not, then I suppose that is where we differ.
If you re-read this piece, I'm sure you'll see that was my point.
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Well re-read my comment and you will see that I was generalizing towards anyone complaining.
I will retract that they didn't know it would be bad, since the fire code would have to be enforced, but I will still not agree that it somehow makes the event unsuccessful just because you (YOU MEANING ANYONE COMPLAINING NOT JUST YOU JOHN YOU) could not get in.
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Yeh you know there was that Lady Gaga concert and it sold out and I DIDNT GET IN! And then they have the NERVE, THE NERVE!!!, to tell ME that the concert was the BEST EVER! Even though they had to turn away half the people who wanted to go!
The gall of some people to deny me my right as an american to have EVERYTHING I WANT!
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Besides the absurdity of your example, I'm not quite sure what point you are making. Ring Dance didn't sell tickets. The Committee didn't tell anyone about the room being capped until 10:45pm. I don't think it's the case of not getting what you want...it's the fact that the Committee decided to waste 2 hours from the lives of hundreds of people with no reason. This wouldn't be an issue at all if there was proper communication.
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OH MY G! You mean they had THE NERVE!!!! to run that event and try to cycle people in and out and NOT TELL YOU!!! THEY WASTED 2 HOURS! THE NERVE!!!!
*Disclaimer: If you don't get the point of these posts then I can fully understand why you are complaining...
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In summary, I see three things here:
1) There was poor communication. This absolutely can't be disputed. And yes, it completely wasted hundreds of people's time. They screwed up, and an honest apology should be made to all those people, not just the juniors necessarily.
2) It is unfair to declare the dance "a success," knowing that it truly was not, based on the events that occurred.
3)Responsibility is being shuffled from person to person within the leadership: first blaming the fire marshal alone, then blaming poor timing (even though they clearly known in advance), etc. Now proceeding to pretend that everything was fine is ridiculous.
I think no one can really disagree with these three aspects that lead to a failed evening, regardless of whether or not the population was truly offended and hurt.
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Boo hoo, you didn't get to go to a dance. Grow up already. You're adults now. This isn't high school. Entitlement complex, much?
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