James Cornish '07 recites a poem to his date, Dean of Students Ann Quinley at the annual "Screw Your Roommate" dinner. The event, which primarily caters to first-year students, saw a record turnout at the dinner portion of the event. However, the dance afterwards, which has been a Pomona tradition for years, saw the worst attendance in the event's history.

SYR Flops Despite Efforts, Future Uncertain

By Caleb Oken-Berg
News Editor

Tables of glow-sticks, cotton candy and popcorn machines lined the edges of Harwood Courtyard on Saturday night, as members of the Committee for Campus Life and Activities (CCLA) waited expectantly at the gates to admit students to the annual “Screw Your Roommate” (SYR) dance. The music started around 9 pm, and the new addition to the event, an inflatable jousting arena, was prepped and ready to go.

“It had the potential to be an incredibly fun night,” said Megan Cribbs ’06, Co-Chair of CCLA Annual Events.

Most Pomona students seemed to feel otherwise.

By 10 pm, not one ticket had been purchased. When at 10:30 pm, five students had purchased tickets and left after several minutes, Cribbs and Campus Events Commissioner Danielle Ticoulat-Bowers ’04 made an executive decision to make the event free.

“We decided that nobody was there, and we had already gone to the trouble to put on the whole event,” Cribbs said. “At that point, it wasn’t going to make money anyway.”

The elimination of the entrance fee did little to encourage attendance. Cribbs estimates no more than fifty people showed up to the dance over the course of the entire evening.

To some of the organizers, the extremely low turnout was slightly surprising, as the traditional dress-up-dinner and meeting of dates drew larges numbers of students. Dean of Students Ann Quinley was even set up with a freshman student dressed in drag, who recited a poem to her from atop a table in Frank Dining Hall.

“We had record numbers at dinner,” said Joel Perez, Assistant Director of Smith Campus Center and Student Programs. “But [students] chose not to attend the party.”

Cribbs estimates CCLA lost $1500 on the dance. However, Ticoulat-Bowers pointed out that this figure only reflects what the organization could have earned to add to their fund for other campus parties in the future.

“We never make money on SYR,” she said.

Students and CCLA members have considered a variety of reasons as to why the even was so poorly attended.

Perez pointed out that at the same time as SYR, Harvey Mudd College was simultaneously throwing its yearly foam party, at which free alcohol was served.

“Basically everyone’s thoughts were, ‘Why pay money to go to SYR when you can play in foam for free?’” said Ashley Toliver ’07.

In addition to the HMC party, a concert event at Pitzer College also drew many students away from the dance.

“People would have gone if it were the only event happening that night,” said Will Downing ’07, “but there were a lot of other really good social options available.”

Normally, the individuals in similar positions as Ticoulat-Bowers from the other Claremont Colleges meet every few weeks to make sure that large events and parties are not scheduled for the same evenings. However, as Ticoulat-Bowers pointed out, the group has not met yet, leading to two large events planned in one evening.

Alex Jakle ’06 also attributed the low turnout to the fact that the event is considered mostly a first-year event.

“SYR is primarily a freshmen oriented dance,” he said, “because it is a freshmen oriented event overall.”

Despite a low turnout last year, CCLA members were optimistic about the dance this time around. With a change in venue and the several new attractions, Cribbs and Co-Chair of Annual Events Lauren Denny ’06 hoped to bring people back to SYR.

“It’s disappointing that one of the main annual events of the year had zero turnout,” Cribbs said. “We tried to get people excited about it again and to generate excitement for future years, but we just couldn’t do it.”

With the continuing downward spiral of attendance to SYR each year, CCLA committee members admit that the future of the dance is uncertain. Ticoulat-Bowers believes that eliminating the entrance fee is a clear way to attract more students. Cribbs thinks the event needs to be “drastically changed,” with the possibility of combining meeting dates and the dance or eliminating the dance portion all together.

“At this point, I am not sure what we will do, since every year there are different students involved with the planning of SYR,” said Perez. “All we can do is learn from this year and make changes that will hopefully have a positive effect on the event for next year.”