Sid Rich's '80s party is a success with no transports or fire alarms

By Sam Hooper     9/22/11 7:00pm

Bright colors and spandex abounded on campus last Saturday when around 2,000 students attended Sid Richardson College's annual '80s party. Typically one of the year's most popular public parties, Sid '80s again featured the live '80s cover band Molly & the Ringwalds, who played in the college's commons for the duration of the event.

"The '80s cover band was a great touch," Brown freshman Aryn Neurock said. "It was far more lively than a DJ."

Sid Richardson Co-Socials Julianne Roberson and Libby Ulman commented that this was the band's ninth year to play at Sid's '80s party.

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Though Sid '80s is a long-established public party, the outdoor space which many students utilized on Saturday was new to the event. That space, which included stations for alcohol serving, bathrooms and live audio of the concert going on indoors, was planned in response to the problem of overcrowding.

"Sid is physically one of the smallest colleges ... our commons is pretty small, and we also have a bottleneck area in between the elevators and the commons that has always gotten overcrowded. We had to look at solutions for how to handle [that problem]," Ulman said. "The outdoor area really helped."

Many said they found the space to be successful, including Martel College sophomore Mika Tabata.

"The outside fenced area was a fantastic idea ... the extra space was definitely used," she said.

Even so, overcrowding became an issue during the height of the party as areas reached capacity, and some students were forced to wait outside until more space became available.

"Making people wait outside when it was too full was not very fun, but probably helped in keeping the alarms from going off," said Duncan College senior Grace Ching.

Despite heavy attendance, there were no EMS transports made during the party, said the Sid co-socials. While Dean Hutchinson and Rice EMS have stressed that EMS calls should not be used as a metric and that students should never hesitate to call EMS if a student's safety is unsure, Ulman and Roberson believe that the lack of EMS intervention in Saturday's event is due in part to the special measures taken by Sid to ensure student safety there.

"We have a pretty successful caregiving setup in general, where we have caregivers that take care of EMS calls, caregivers [who are] there to provide water ... and an area for people to step away from the party who might have had one too many drinks," Ulman said.

"It was a fantastic party," Sid freshman Carolyn Shuford said. "Everyone was super-excited to be there and hear the band. I certainly was."

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