TUSC Seniors announces first Senior Night replacing 'Senior Pub Night'

The first Senior Night of the year will be held on Oct. 20, according to Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) Seniors, also known as the Senior Class Council, which is the group responsible for organizing Senior Nights.

The event, titled "Senior Oktoberfest," will take place on the President's Lawn, and tickets go on sale Monday, Oct. 17 at 10:30 a.m. on Tufts Tickets and at the Mayer Campus Center Information Booth, according to a Facebook page for the event. Senior Katie Waymack, a member of TUSC Seniors, said that tickets will be $10, which is consistent with ticket prices for Senior Nights in previous years.

According to Waymack, the event will include free food, a DJ group and alcohol for purchase. 800 tickets are available this year, which exceeds the 600-700 tickets that have been available for previous Senior Nights, Waymack noted.

The event will only be open to students over the age of 21, according to the Facebook event. This year, planning a 21+ event has been a priority for TUSC Seniors, according to the group.

"Over the years we have been listening to feedback from our classmates and have heard many people voicing desires for a 21+ event on campus," TUSC Seniors said in a statement to the Daily last month. "The Senior Class Council is now working on such an event that will provide seniors an opportunity to come together and celebrate their four years at Tufts."

This announcement comes in the wake of the decision by the Office for Campus Life (OCL) to forego the practice of providing transportation to a club in Boston for Senior Night, a tradition colloquially known as "Senior Pub Night," according to a Sept. 23 article in the Daily.

Director for Campus Life Joe Golia explained that he decided to cancel "Senior Pub Night" because of recurring instances of student rowdiness, excessive costs, negative behavior by venue staff and, most recently, an incident in which several students acted with hostility towards an OCL staff member.

In the midst of this, TUSC Seniors has argued that the format of Senior Night needed to change because of threats to student safety and student mistreatment by non-Tufts staff.

"We, as the Senior Class Council, did not feel comfortable both hosting and financing an event where our peers felt unwelcomed, unsafe or offended," TUSC Seniors said in the Sept. 23 Daily article.

In addition to the Oktoberfest event, senior Shana Gallagher is organizing a replacement for "Senior Pub Night," called "Senior Bar Evening," at Whiskey Saigon in Boston on Oct. 13, according to the Sept. 23 Daily article. Gallagher said that she is organizing her event independently of the university, and that it is not designed to be a protest event or a criticism of the Senior Class Council.

Golia noted that students have organized independent Senior Nights in the past. Indeed, after "Senior Pub Night" was threatened with cancellation in 2009, a group of students also organized an alternative event called "Senior Club Life," according to an Oct. 2009 article in the Daily.

Events for seniors will continue throughout the year, Waymack said. For example, the Senior Class Council will be teaming up with the Career Center to create senior-specific seminars throughout the rest of the year.

Waymack is optimistic about the event and its community-building potential.

"For Oktoberfest we're hoping to bring the Senior class together to celebrate the past four years at Tufts," Waymack told the Daily in an electronic message.