Students attending the Friday night Dive will notice several changes to the atmosphere of the event.
These changes were enacted by the Campus Activities Office and Campus Safety with support by the Dean of Students Office in consultation with other colleges.
Director of Campus Safety Carol Brewer reflected on the existence of the Dive as a popular Friday night event, while addressing some concerns.
“The Dive dances are intended to be an alcohol alternative event in a safe environment. We are trying to achieve a safe environment for students to have an enjoyable time,” Brewer said.
Director of Campus Activities Andrea Junso went into greater detail on what the new changes will entail.
“We are changing the capacity from 300 to 200. The dances will continue to end at 1 a.m., however no one will be allowed in after 12:45 a.m. We will be tripling the water available. All employees will be trained on Sexual Misconduct and Over-consumption of alcohol behaviors. The lighting will change, and it will be brighter,” Junso said.
Brewer attributed these changes mainly to the consumption of alcohol and sexual misconduct.
“We saw an increase in the number of incidents and complaints that we were responding to from Dive dances, both in the areas of excessive alcohol use prior to the event, suspicion of alcohol being used at or in the area of the Dive during the event, and inappropriate touching,” Brewer said.
However, some students are concerned with the possible repercussions of these changes due to the fact that some may be less inclined to attend. This may then cause ‘dive activities’ to happen off campus in an unsupervised environment.
Sophomore, Laura Isdahl, expressed her concerns for the new changes, saying that the school might regret making these changes and what it might otherwise promote.
“They might regret this decision to change things because people will find ways to have a ‘sort of dive experience’. Whether it’s at school or off campus, it’s probably going to happen,” Isdahl said.
Agree or disagree, the new changes will be taking place with the hopes of a safer environment for students to participate in on Friday nights.
-Christine Peterson