With only one alcohol-related transport, one major injury, and “a lot of public urination,” the College’s 150th Ivies was a busy but successful weekend for the College, according to Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols.
On Friday, students gathered for an annual party held on the Brunswick Quad.
A female student in the Class of 2017 was transported due to overconsumption of alcohol. Nichols noted that the transport was not a particularly serious one, with the student only staying in the hospital for 2-3 hours. There have been 16 alcohol-related transports to date this year.
A male first-year student fell on broken glass and cut his back open severely.
“Most years we have glass cuts during Ivies and this was the most serious glass cut injury we’ve had during my nine Ivies,” said Nichols. “Often we’ll get foot cuts and things like that, so that was unfortunate, but the student is recovering and doing well.”
Multiple students were escorted out of Brunswick Quad because of dangerous behavior.
For most students, however, the day was a success.
“My favorite Ivies event was definitely Brunswick Quad on Friday,” said Lillian Eckstein ’18. “It was super fun to just hang with friends and bump to the sick beats. Plus the weather was so fresh.”
Although the events at Harpswell Apartments and Pine Street Apartments on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively, went seamlessly, Brunswick Quad and Ladd House were more problematic. According to Nichols, the Brunswick Quad was very active and kept security officers busy for the whole day on Friday. Ladd House hosted an event on Saturday known to some students as “Laddio” that demanded similar attention.
“There were a number of registered events approved for Saturday morning and we allowed that to carry on into the afternoon up until about the concert time, so the Ladd event got a little raucous,” said Nichols.
A chair was smashed by a student on the patio and a window was also shattered by a student.
Security determined that the broken window at Ladd was an accident, citing “particularly wild dance moves” as the cause. The student has agreed to pay for the damages. Security is still trying to determine who is responsible for the vandalism of the chair on the patio.
Public urination was the most frequent citation this weekend, particularly inside and outside Ladd House on Saturday.
Public urination was not as big of a problem at Brunswick Quad as it has been in previous years. Nichols attributed this to the College’s decision to introduce numerous porta-potties for the event this year.
“I guess one takeaway is to bring on more porta-potties at the larger events” said Nichols. “That said, there are nearly a thousand toilets on campus, so with minimal effort everyone should be able to find one.”
For the second year in a row, the Office of Student Activities decided to move the Saturday concert indoors to Farley Field House. The concert was headlined by The White Panda and Logic.
“Although it ended up not raining all that much on Saturday, it turned out to be pretty cold and windy so I think it was the right call to put the show inside,” said Co-Chair of the Entertainment Board (eBoard) Matt Friedland ’15.
Nichols said that although the decision to move the event indoors is not one that students typically favor, it does make security’s job less challenging because they can control access to the venue more easily.
“However I always prefer to have it outside—it’s more fun” Nichols said.
In comparison to previous years, there were no reported problems with disorderly visitors.
Despite the few incidents that did occur, Nichols said he believed that it was a successful Ivies, and the eBoard agreed.
“We are very happy with how the weekend went overall,” said Friedland in an email to the Orient. “We loved the excited atmosphere that campus brought to the show. The performers fed off the energy of the crowd and we think all three acts did a fantastic job. It’s nice to see hard work pay off and enjoy the end of the year together as a campus.”
Editor's note: A previous version of a quotation by Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols suggested that there were five registered events at Ladd House on the Saturday of Ivies. In fact, he said that there were five registered events in total that day, one of which was at Ladd House.