Last year, Spam Jam – the out-door festival at which juniors and seniors traditionally ring in the spring season – nearly took place without alcohol.
This year, there will be beer, but if the plans put in place by the Inter Residence Hall Assembly are executed, students who want to drink will have to do so in an enclosed beer garden, roped off from the rest of the festivities.
IRHA, an organization composed of representatives from various residence halls, plans to combine Spam Jam, typically held on the townhouse lawns, with May Day, a similar festival for underclassmen that is traditionally held on the quad, and hold one joint event at Lessing Field.
The move comes a year after RASOR/UNITE, the organization that represented townhouse and apartment residents until it was disbanded at the end of the academic year, failed to obtain a liquor permit.
A student acting independently of the organization stepped forward and assumed the liabilities of the liquor license.
Ashlee Downing ’08, chair of the IRHA committee charged with planning the event, said the goal is for students to venture outside the beer garden and participate in the activities, food and music on the quad.
“Furthermore, there are more practical reasons for this change. For one, it will make it easier for staff such as the Area Coordinators, RA’s and Public Safety for the event to be combined,” said Downing, an R.A. in Jogues Hall who has never attended Spam Jam.
Deborah Cady, director of residence life and associate dean of students, said combining Spam Jam and May Day into one spring day for all ages would bring the whole campus together to celebrate a common pride in the University.
Hosting a larger, day-long event offering food, music and entertainment in one central location for students, faculty and community members is possible if IRHA combines its resources, Cady said.
“The Office of Residence Life is invested in providing fun and safe community events. This does not exclude the serving of alcohol to those of legal drinking age but does require such service to comply with University policy and our liquor license,” Cady said.
May Day and Spam Jam began as one event and were only separated a few years ago because of construction that was occurring at the time, according to Downing.
But FUSA president Hutch Williams ’08 is in favor of keeping the event the way it was.
It worked out so well last year, he said. And the isolation of the two events was done for a reason.
“Spam Jam is one tradition that is solid, and it upsets me to think that it could be changed; don’t fix it if it’s not broken,” Williams said.
He added that there are other ways to host a campus-wide event instead of changing one of the last University sanctioned traditions.
Williams plans to meet with students from IRHA and members of the Residence Life staff this week.
Seniors who attended Spam Jam last year and currently live at the townhouses are outraged by the change.
“My god, what is wrong with this school?” said Keno Martinez ’07. “It was so much fun last year because it was literally outside my house. I don’t know if seniors are going to want to hang out on the quad. I mean I don’t have a problem with freshmen or sophomores, it’s just a matter of having some time with the people you really know.”
Townhouse residents in the junior class who have not yet gotten the chance to attend Spam Jam at the townhouses are also upset.
“This is not fair, Spam Jam should be around the townhouses where we live. This isn’t their tradition, it’s ours. We weren’t allowed to go when we were freshmen and sophomores,” said Katie Yee ’08.
“It’s a tradition for juniors and seniors, so there is no reason for it to be held in the quad. We have waited three years for this, so that’s awful,” said Lena Carlucci ’08.
Junior Steve Cusato, a beach resident, agreed that the event should be for upperclassmen only.
“Do the students have a say in this? Some traditions should remain exclusive to juniors and seniors, I don’t understand how drinking in a separate area from all of your friends [in] the beer garden promotes unity,” said Cusato.
Karla Wei ’08 who also lives at the beach was looking forward to attending Spam Jam with her friends at the townhouses.
“I just returned from Australia. I am 21. Spam Jam is our thing at the townhouses with our grade and our friends,” she said.
“It’s cool to promote responsible drinking and fraternizing between the ages, but that’s not what Spam Jam is about,” Elliott Smith ’08 said. “It’s always been about bands and upperclassmen,” he said.
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