Fall Ball, an annual campus-wide dance party, met with great success on Friday, with fewer alcohol-related incidents and a generally cleaner and classier atmosphere. For many freshmen, their first major introduction to life at Tufts came as a welcome reprieve from the stress of the first week of classes, yet for upperclassmen who have attended Fall Balls of years past, the lead-up to the event proved somewhat disappointing.
After a wild and crazy 2008 event marked by a high rate of alcohol-related incidents and instances of unbecoming behavior, organizers from the Office for Campus Life and Programming Board worked hard to reduce students' levels of drunken behavior at last year's dance. Notably, Fall Ball 2009 saw the arrival of tickets required for admission, an improvement over previous years when anyone with a Tufts identification card could attend and room capacity regulations went largely ignored. A stricter eye toward inebriated attendees and inappropriate conduct accompanied the new ticketing system.
This year, organizers responded to criticism of last year's long, slow-moving lines for tickets outside Mayer Campus Center. Three people handed out tickets at the front of the line, scanning IDs as they went; last year, just one person was on hand to check off names from a printed-out list. In addition, staffers gave the first 600 people in line each day slips of paper that indicated that they, and not those who arrived later, would receive tickets.
Just like last year, Fall Ball this year was smartly incorporated into "First Friday," a night full of programming including the popular R-rated hypnotist show. Encouraging students to attend programs before Fall Ball cleverly limits the amount of alcohol consumed directly before the dance, yet it remains possible that many of the other First Friday event attendees might not have been planning to head to a massive dance party anyway.
For all the positive changes, though, shortfalls in the ticketing system prevented Fall Ball from reaching its true potential. Hours-long lines throughout last week stretched down Professors Row nearly to College Ave., with students waking up early and wasting large chunks of a busy first week of the semester waiting in line. Many upperclassmen who had enjoyed the lax atmosphere of previous Fall Balls pooh-poohed the idea of waiting in line, while underclassmen who had known no other system saw hundreds of students waiting for tickets and jumped in line without thinking twice.
People still cut the lines before and after they received the slips of paper, and organizers were not clear about whether students had to wait around even after they had received the slips.
A clear solution to the limited chaos could come in the form of online ticketing. While creating a Web distribution system could be difficult, useful online platforms may already be available. Although the packed lines of chattering students down Professors Row each day of last week did create significant hype, Fall Ball garners enough excitement on its own.
As the system moves online, blocks of time designated for certain students would replace lines. More than enough tickets could be made available to seniors for three hours on the Tuesday morning preceding Fall Ball, for example. And seniors and freshmen should receive priority. Seniors should have a chance to easily sign up to attend their final Fall Ball, and freshmen should not be deprived of their first grand welcome to undergraduate life. Plenty of tickets would be left over for sophomores and juniors possibly for distribution via the current system at the campus center; those who missed out would be guaranteed a ticket senior year.
Another option would be to borrow some aspects of the Senior Week ticketing system, in which seniors receive a lottery number and may sign themselves and some of their friends up for different events.
Despite the work remaining to be done, this year's Fall Ball was clearly a classier version of previous years' pandemonium. We are grateful to organizers for turning Fall Ball around and making it the semester kickoff it is supposed to be, instead of the condom-carpeted carouse of 2008.
