Despite Starf*ck, Saturday night was slow for Emergency Medical Services. The Queer Alliance event drew about 150 people to Leung Gallery that night - without anyone receiving EMS attention at the event. In fact, EMS staffers weren't even present at the event.
"Nobody needed EMS, no one passed out, and there were no fights," said Aida Manduley '11, an event coordinator for the Queer Alliance.
Turnout for the event was lower than in previous years, Manduley said. About 150 people attended the event in Leung Gallery, which has a capacity of 290, she said.
In 2005, Starf*ck was cancelled after Sex Power God received negative publicity the previous fall on The O'Reilly Factor, a show on Fox News hosted by conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly. Since then, both Sex Power God and Starf*ck have been required by the University to have EMS on site. This was the first QA dance since 2005 that wasn't required to have EMS on site, said QA Secretary Zachary Marcus '10. "We've shown that we've become capable of keeping it under control,"Marcus '10 said. Instead, party managers were responsible for contacting EMS in case it was needed.
No one at the event needed attention from EMS, and only two people were EMSed on campus Saturday night, said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president of campus life and dean for student life. Additionally, there were no problems with students passing out or starting fights during the dance, Manduley said.
"The spring dance, Starf*ck, has never had the kind of problems that Sex Power God had a few years ago," Klawunn said. She said no special arrangements were made specifically for the dance other than the standard safety precautions.
During Starf*ck, security guards from Green Horn Management and the Department of Public Safety were stationed throughout Faunce House near the entrances to the building and on stairwells to regulate entry of partygoers, Marcus said. The University requires the presence of Green Horn Management security guards at QA dances, he said. Though the security service is used for all campus events, including the upcoming Spring Weekend concerts, QA dances usually have more security than other dances, he added.
Additionally, QA student volunteers served as party managers to "make sure everything happening on the dance floor was safe and consensual," Manduley said. The party managers were also stationed outside bathrooms to make sure there were no problems, she said. Manduley, Marcus and QA Head Chair Katie Lamb '10 were also present for the whole event to make sure there weren't any technical difficulties with lighting and music, she said.
For the past two years, Starf*ck has been held in Alumnae Hall, Marcus said. This year it was moved to the smaller Leung Gallery, which the QA felt was more appropriate for the dance, which is typically smaller than Sex Power God, he added.
Around 100 tickets were sold before the event. The Queer Alliance, which sponsored the event, usually doesn't sell tickets at the door. But this year, fewer tickets than usual were presold, and an additional 50 tickets were sold at the door, Manduley said.
In the past two years, not many students needed emergency medical attention at Starf*ck, said Kelly Garrett, coordinator of the LGBTQ Resource Center, adding that Starf*ck is always smaller than Sex Power God. The Herald reported last March that one student required medical attention at the event in 2007.
In addition to advertisements for the event, event coordinators posted preventative messages encouraging people to attend sober, Klawunn said.
Promotion for the event seemed less prominent than in previous years, partly because some of the posters for the event were torn down or went missing, Manduley said.
"I think SPG was better advertised," said Chloe Swirsky '11. Of Starf*ck, Alexandra Watson '11 said, "I don't think anyone went to that."
"We're happy with the amount of people that showed up," Lamb said. Lamb added that she and other coordinators expected the turnout, which she also said was lower than previous years'.
"We expected that we weren't going to have 300 people because there were a lot of other things going on," Manduley said, citing parties hosted by Machado House and the Jabberwocks.
The attendees tended to be more familiar with the dynamic of Queer Alliance dances, the coordinators said. Manduley said students told her that the dance seemed more relaxed and more comfortable than Sex Power God. In comparison to Sex Power God, Starf*ck attracts fewer freshmen and therefore may seem tamer, she said.
