An otherwise uneventful Senior Pub Night came to an unexpected end Thursday night as attendees fled what seemed like a pepper spray-like substance in the air.
The second Senior Pub Night of the semester drew praise from students, administrators and event staff for running smoothly and remaining mostly unmarked by the drunken behavior that has dogged the event's reputation in past years.
The only hitch in the event occurred shortly after 1 a.m., when dozens of attendees headed for bathrooms and exits in an attempt to get away from some kind of irritant that had apparently been sprayed in the air above the dance floor.
Roughly 700 seniors bought tickets to the event at Tequila Rain, a bar located in the Fenway.
Office for Campus Life (OCL) Director Joe Golia called the event a success.
"We were really pleased," Golia said. "There's always individual incidents, like this one. But nothing that we'd label as a problem for the whole class."
Numerous students standing in close proximity to the dance floor reported a reaction to the spray.
"I was on the dance floor with a couple of my friends, and immediately, you couldn't inhale all the way," senior Elley Rohrer said. "You couldn't breathe."
Rohrer said she moved away from the main room to a bathroom in search of clearer air. "Everyone was drinking water and coughing," Rohrer said.
"We were just dancing in the middle of the dance floor, and suddenly it was an intense burning sensation in your throat — really bad," senior Max Pinto said. "It made you cough, but it didn't burn your eyes. Everyone around me had the same sensation."
"All of a sudden, everyone started flooding out of the dance floor," Senior Class Council President Lindsey Rosenbluth said. The venue staff actively tried to clear the room, she said.
OCL Assistant Director David McGraw, who spoke with staff from the bar after the event's conclusion, said they cleared the dance floor for safety reasons.
"We know what you know," Golia said. "We were basically told that they labeled it pepper spray and that someone sprayed it in the air."
Pepper spray is an aerosol designed to cause irritation of the eyes and throat. It is sold at the consumer level as a self-defense product and is widely available.
However, Chris Bruno, the general manager of Tequila Rain, told the Daily that he was not aware of any sort of spray-related incident. "The agreement with the promoters was that we would close at 1 o'clock," Bruno said. But Rosenbluth said the contract set the closing time at 2 a.m., with the last call at 1:15 a.m.
"As far as we're concerned, the event went great, and we'll welcome everyone back," Bruno said. He declined further comment.
McGraw saw things differently. "Obviously, something did happen, and it was his staff that notified me of it," he said. McGraw said he had not spoken with Bruno but with another individual affiliated with the bar.
Golia said OCL staff manned the entrance to the event, helping to manage student entry and ticket checking, but that OCL personnel were not present inside the venue itself.
By the time the incident happened, the event was already beginning to wind down, according to Golia. "At that point, it was almost over anyway," he said. "They were just about to close down, and a lot of people were leaving."
"From their standpoint, they were disappointed," McGraw said of the venue's staff. "Overall, the night was going pretty well. For that to happen, it just kind of killed the mood for everyone."
McGraw said that despite the episode, the Tequila Rain staff was very positive about the outcome of the event. "They were actually really pleased with our group. They said they were one of the best parties they'd had," McGraw said.
McGraw said the only other issue with the night involved entry to the event itself. "There was an issue at the front door where they had to stop letting people in due to the fact that people were getting trampled," McGraw said. He urged attendees to come earlier to future events in the future to avoid waiting in line.
Golia said Tequila Rain has invited Tufts back for future pub nights. "They thought it was a great crowd," Golia said. "When we hear that that's always good news."
