The Whitworthian’s editorial board recently proposed the StewVille Mystery Mix be an all freshmen dance. I would have to disagree with many of the reasons and potential benefits they cite.

Orientation and Traditiation are structured such that they have their own extremely well-planned climax. The StewVille dance aims to welcome students as they prepare to enjoy another year at together. Freshmen and new students spend all of orientation together. By the end, they are ready to be accepted as full-fledged members of the Whitworth community. Isolating them would imply that they are not yet mature enough to engage in college life at Whitworth.

Residents of a freshmen dorm community highly value chances to interact with upperclassmen. It was cited that “most of the attendees are freshmen”, which is an inaccurate blanket statement. As a student leader who worked the gate for half of the dance, I can attest that of those in attendance there was a large contingent of returners.

Security procedures would be advised to remain the same regardless of attendees. Whitworth identification would be checked and the dance staged in a closed environment. There could still be non-Whitworth students trying to enter. That does not change based upon an only freshmen event or an all campus event.

This being said, as the student leader in charge of the dance, I remain open to input. If I heard of any instances where students felt unsafe or uncomfortable, I would work to put them at ease and make their voice heard.

Respectfully,

Aly Brooks
StewVille Sentator
[email protected]