ASG hopes to bring back Senior Ball

By Kurt Wagner

Santa Clara University is no longer welcome at the Portola Plaza Hotel in Monterey. Nor are they welcome at Monterey's Hyatt Regency Hotel. In fact, they would be hard-pressed to find any hotel in the Monterey area willing to host a Santa Clara student event.

The bans stem from a Santa Clara tradition that dates all the way back to the 1920's: Senior Ball.

The tradition has taken a turn for the worse in the last decade. Embarrassingly offensive student behavior coupled with increased ticket and venue costs have led to the school's hotel bans and decreased student turnout.

"A lot of years in a row we got a lot of negative publicity because of the behavior of students not just at the Ball proper, but at the hotel where it was (held) and at the surrounding hotels," said Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger. "We had a couple of really bad years to the point that we were no longer welcome in the city of Monterey."

Most of the behavior was alcohol-induced, as many of the seniors brought in their own bottles of alcohol to both the pre-dance dinner and the actual Ball itself. In addition to excessive drinking and noise, behavior ranged from students urinating in potted plants in the hotel lobby, to streaking naked and having sex in the hotel hallways, said Jon Gray, director of the Center for Student Leadership.

Last year, after the dance proposal was submitted too late in the year by AS members, the Senior Ball failed to take place for the first time in over 80 years.

ASG President Chris Mosier and Santa Clara's student government have prepared a proposal this year in order to ensure that the Senior Ball tradition doesn't die out. A first proposal was already presented to administration in early January, said Senior Class Chair Carolyn Jones, who is spear-heading the project. A second, slightly-revised proposal was submitted again on Monday.

Details of the proposal have been kept quiet by AS in case it is turned down or the details are changed.

"I can say that I am very excited that it has finally been submitted," said Mosier through email. "(I) will do my best to work with administration to put on a successful event."  

Prior student behavior is the main reason that the little details have become so important in this year's proposal. In 2007, students racked up $6,429 in damages and guest inconvenience charges at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Monterey, said Rosenberger. Most of the charges resulted from the hotel having to comp guests free nights or meals as an apology for the disturbance caused by the Santa Clara students.  

In 2008, the Ball was hosted at another Monterey hotel, the Portola Plaza, where students once again caused guest inconveniences and damages in the amount of $5,300. The bill sent to the university by the hotel cited 51 different guest complaints over two nights, including one student arrest.

Gray called for increased security from the hotel lobby around 10 p.m. that Saturday evening because student behavior was getting out of hand.

"(The Hyatt and Portola Plaza) asked us very eloquently not to come back," said Gray, who was up dealing with rowdy students until 6 a.m.  

The American Academy of Pediatrics California Chapter 1, which represents over 2,000 pediatricians in Northern California, was hosting a postgraduate medical conference at the Portola Plaza the same weekend. The organization sent a letter to former University President Fr. Paul Locatelli S.J. outlining its disappointment in the student behavior. The letter was signed by all of the organization's board members.

The letter stated: "Several pediatricians complained that they were not able to sleep and their small children were extremely frightened by the noise… It is unbelievable to us that a University that caters to educating and nurturing young adults would allow such an event as outlined above to happen."

"To have their entire board send us a letter," said Rosenberger. "I mean, how embarrassing."

In 2009, the university refused to sponsor any Senior Ball hosted at a hotel, said Rosenberger. The event took place on a boat chartered out of San Francisco and was "significantly" better, said Gray. Students were bused to and from the boat and its location was kept secret to ensure no students could plan for rides or hotel accommodations following the cruise.

However, the change in location resulted in the added cost of transportation to and from the venue, said Gray. This increased ticket costs and, with the tough economy, student turnout went from nearly 800 students down to 350. Tickets cost $125 per person, not including optional alcoholic purchases.

For this year's Ball, Jones has narrowed the location down to three possible off-campus venues that are included in ASG's proposal. Because no final decisions or contracts have been made, Jones said the locations are secret, but did say they were all San Jose based.

The locations were narrowed down after Jones conducted numerous interviews with students involved in Greek life at Santa Clara. Many of the fraternities and sororities host Balls and dances around the Bay Area multiple times per year.

"We're hoping by finding a nice venue in San Jose, that it will make it easier for the school to be okay," said Jones. "A little bit closer to home."

Jones also said she plans to work closely with Gray on ensuring proper security and staffing will be present to avoid any major behavioral problems at this year's Ball.

With income from student ticket sales declining so drastically since the location change, budgeting will be another obstacle for ASG to hurdle in order to get this year's Ball up and running.

"It's going to cost over $10,000, I know," said Mosier, who won't have an official dollar amount until the proposal is finalized and approved. "So pulling $10,000 from our budget, I don't know if it's realistic in itself. I mean that's like a quarter of our budget for one event."

Mosier asked the Alumni office last fall to co-sponsor the event to help curb some of the costs. The Alumni office and the development Office host numerous senior events every year including the Senior Wine Nights.

Jimmy Shoven, the class giving officer for the Office of Development said he was taken by surprise by Mosier's request and both departments will wait to see the proposal before any final decisions are made.

"There is a lot of taboo about whose name is attached to Senior Ball if it goes wrong," said Shoven. "It's not a good thing for the university overall if things continue the way they did."

Administration will make a decision on this year's Ball and quite possibly the Ball's future after reviewing the revised proposal that was submitted on Monday.

"To get that dance back here," said Jones, "I think that would be a huge success."

Contact Kurt Wagner at jwagner@scu.edu or (408) 554-4849.