I feel another rant coming on...
So last night (Friday the 27th) was our Masquerade Ball here at SCAD. We have no homecoming or any other major school-wide festive events (save the shindig right before graduation), so the annual Masquerade Ball is kinda a big deal. Especially since this is Art School, and what better thing to do than see all the bizarre and wonderful costumes our mad student body can come up with.
In previous years the Ball has been held in the Byte Cafe, located inside Montgomery Hall which has the distinct disadvantages of being way the hell away from everything, and the Cafe itself is smallish and not really suited to dance parties. The conpensation is that Monty Hall is way the hell away from eveything - no noise ordinance-, and it used to be a three storey warehouse, so the Hall itself is fucking huge so the party just spills out into the hallway until it gradually takes over most of the building. And there's like an acre of parking.
This year the celebration was shifted to the Brand Spanking New Student Center ( which has been supposed to open every year since I was a freshman, but just did like 2 months ago). At first blush, this is good thing. That's what student centers are for. Except that the Student Center is small. And they tried to confine the party to the second floor. And then they met fire capacity, the second floor floor started bowing, and they locked the doors on at least half of the student body and wouldn't let anyone else in.
NOT FUCKING COOL.
We attempted to have an impromtu party in the parking garage next door, but got kicked out. And it was raining, so we couldn't go to the usual weekend Street Parties at City Market or River Street. And alot of kids aren't 21 and so we couldn't go into a nightclub or any sorta of place that would approximate the dancey party atmosphere we had spent all week preparing for.
And it occurs to me that I shouldn't be supprised. I've been in the Student Center before. It's really fucking cool. But it's not big enough to suit our needs, and honestly I don't really buy that it was built with the students in mind. It's a showcase piece. It looks really great to parents and possible investors, but if it doesn't provide a space that the students can use when they want to, then it's not worth the money they spent on it.
You want a pretty showcase SCAD? Make it an Alumni Center. We want a Student Center we can use. The color changing OLEDs are nice, and so are the crazy Japanese sleep pods (of which there are 2, for 8,000ish students)but we can pass on that if you give us a dance floor that more than 200 people can fit on.
In previous years the Ball has been held in the Byte Cafe, located inside Montgomery Hall which has the distinct disadvantages of being way the hell away from everything, and the Cafe itself is smallish and not really suited to dance parties. The conpensation is that Monty Hall is way the hell away from eveything - no noise ordinance-, and it used to be a three storey warehouse, so the Hall itself is fucking huge so the party just spills out into the hallway until it gradually takes over most of the building. And there's like an acre of parking.
This year the celebration was shifted to the Brand Spanking New Student Center ( which has been supposed to open every year since I was a freshman, but just did like 2 months ago). At first blush, this is good thing. That's what student centers are for. Except that the Student Center is small. And they tried to confine the party to the second floor. And then they met fire capacity, the second floor floor started bowing, and they locked the doors on at least half of the student body and wouldn't let anyone else in.
NOT FUCKING COOL.
We attempted to have an impromtu party in the parking garage next door, but got kicked out. And it was raining, so we couldn't go to the usual weekend Street Parties at City Market or River Street. And alot of kids aren't 21 and so we couldn't go into a nightclub or any sorta of place that would approximate the dancey party atmosphere we had spent all week preparing for.
And it occurs to me that I shouldn't be supprised. I've been in the Student Center before. It's really fucking cool. But it's not big enough to suit our needs, and honestly I don't really buy that it was built with the students in mind. It's a showcase piece. It looks really great to parents and possible investors, but if it doesn't provide a space that the students can use when they want to, then it's not worth the money they spent on it.
You want a pretty showcase SCAD? Make it an Alumni Center. We want a Student Center we can use. The color changing OLEDs are nice, and so are the crazy Japanese sleep pods (of which there are 2, for 8,000ish students)but we can pass on that if you give us a dance floor that more than 200 people can fit on.