By Will Stone

Bryn Mawr has traditionally been the number one bi-co party destination on Halloween night, but this year’s handful of new regulations sent most Fords in search of alternative plans. In response to the overcrowding of past years, Bryn Mawr instituted a new set of prerequisites for students who wished to attend the parties in Radnor or Thomas Great Hall.

All students were required to pre-register several days in advance for an admission wristband. To improve security, Bryn Mawr hired professional bouncers to join party security, which already included Lower Merion police, public safety and college staff. In addition, Haverford students were not permitted to bring guests.

These new restrictions alone convinced most Haverford students that Bryn Mawr Halloween was simply not worth the trouble. Few Fords made it over to Bryn Mawr for Halloween.

“It is just a lot of hassle having to order a bracelet, register days before and pick it up. At that point, I would rather just stay here,” said Alison Crawford ’11. “Bryn Mawr doesn’t seem to have the capacity for major parties. Once a party gets this structured, it loses a lot of the fun.”

This wristband policy was also extended to the serving of alcohol. All students 21 or over who wished to drink had to pre-register and pick up an additional wristband in person. This new layer of alcohol security dissuaded Haverford students further from going, even those legally old enough to drink.

“I don’t want to go because I don’t want to pick up my 21-and-over bracelet between 9 and 11 in the Campus Center," said Becca Kuperberg ‘10. "Who would want to do that?”

In response, Fords brought Halloween back to Haverford this year with a dance in Founders Hall, a Sex Piano Halloween show and a number of smaller parties across campus. Students were excited at the prospects of these events, and relieved at not having to go through, what was a disappointing fiasco for many last year.

All misgiving aside, some Fords did make the trip over to Bryn Mawr Halloween on Saturday night. Most noted that Haverford attendance had gone down noticeably from previous years.

Samee Sulaiman ’10 went with a group of bi-co students and commented that security was much tighter this year. Once inside though, he said the party was lively and reasonably packed.

Indeed, the extra security precautions prevented a number of Haverford students from getting into the Radnor party. Security guards turned away Paul Kang ’10 and a group of his friends because they did not all have wristbands. Kang saw almost no other Haverford students riding the Blue Bus over around 11 p.m.

Despite this negative experience, most Fords got inside without a problem, as long as they had bothered to pre-register for wristbands.

“We just wanted to check it out and just see how much fun it was,” Ezekiel Barnett ’13 and Andrew McComas ’13 said.

They made similar observations about tight security and lack of Haverford students. However, they said the over-21 alcohol wristband policy was not strictly enforced.

Still, some students raised concerns about the possible repercussions this rule might have on younger, less experienced partygoers.

Christina Wagner BMC ’11, who is living at Haverford, said, “I especially take issue with the over-21 bracelets. To echo many of the concerns raised following the Lloyd incident, I feel that this will only encourage underage drinkers to pre-game way harder, which may actually cause more alcohol-related incidences.”

Suhavi Tucker ’12 captured the prevailing sentiment of most students.

“In general, I shy away from registered parties,” she said.

Kat Wiley ’12 said that she never actually made it inside the Bryn Mawr party last year. Even Wagner BMC ’11 said she got stuck “waiting on lines that stretched halfway across campus.”

The school’s new policies were implemented to prevent this overcrowding from happening again, but most feel this will stop anyone outside of Bryn Mawr from coming at all.

“I have mixed feeling about the new restrictions," Pat Phelan ‘11 said. "On one hand, I understand the laws are there because in other years they have had so many people coming from outside of the tri-co. But at the same time, by making this party so unappealing, it feels like they are alienating the rest of the tri-co.”AsAsA

Wagner expressed similar regret at how these changes might be perceived by Haverford students.

“Overall, I just think it made Bryn Mawr seem super lame, especially to Haverfordians," she said. "So many times I’ve heard Haverford students complain about how Bryn Mawr took their one good party and ruined it.”

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