Have no fear – psychedelic bowling is still here, just not the way you might remember it.
A CC classic event is still alive and well, to the delight of most students. Neon spandex, bowling, glitter, and beer: there’s not a lot more a CC student could ask for. However, in the past there have been some issues that campus officials want to fix in order to promote a more safe and healthy environment for everyone involved.
Students can expect fewer available tickets, anti-counterfeit measures, stricter rules and tighter security.
Counterfeiting tickets, violence while trying to get onto the buses, and excessive underage drinking are among the main problems that come with the off-campus pastime. Because of counterfeited tickets, bowling alleys have breached fire code on numerous occasions, which is both illegal and unfair for them and their employees.
Most bowling alleys’ full capacity is around 600, and with security, bowling alley employees, other bowlers, CC administration, plus the 550 students with real tickets and all those with counterfeited tickets, there ended up being over 600 people within the complex.
To prevent an oversell of tickets, the total number will decrease from around 550 to 500.
This year’s tickets will have intricate details to make them much more difficult to copy. If you show up with a counterfeit ticket or allow someone to counterfeit the one you obtained, you will not be permitted entrance to the buses. And please don’t be that rambunctious student last year who flipped a table in Worner when denied entrance.
Come on, Tigers, you’re better than that.
Another recurring issue, not only for psychedelic bowling but also for many CC events that involve mass transportation, is the utter chaos getting onto buses.
“We also ask for student cooperation in getting on and off of the CC buses provided for transportation as safety is our number one concern and pushing and shoving to get on and off of buses creates a real safety hazard,” said Rochelle Mason, Associate Dean of Students.
Obviously, alcohol plays a huge part in psychedelic bowling and makes students more aggressive than their sober counterparts.
Michael Varga, Sigma Chi’s Philanthropy Chair and heroic defender of Psychedelic Bowling, suggests the possibility of setting up time slots for getting on buses to avoid the chaos.
The students who get their tickets earlier will have a choice of what time slot they would prefer to board, and those who get them later will be given remaining slots.
The difficulty of managing underage drinking, which combined with the other problems, “has made psychedelic bowling a questionable program,” Student Life Specialist of Campus Activities Bethany Grubbs said.
To discourage underage drinking, security will be cracking down, which potentially could mean getting thrown out if you are caught drinking underage.
Another possibility is to make the 21 and over wristbands more distinct so that security can easily identity underage drinkers, said Varga. In general the event will be stricter; for example, beer pong and other drinking games will NOT be permitted at the bowling alley.
As it states in the Colorado College Pathfinder: “Drinking games and behaviors that they encourage are prohibited at Colorado College.”
Sigma Chi and FIJI will sponsor these events if all goes well, and college officials like Mason and Grubbs have both complimented the fraternities on being “very cooperative and open-minded towards the changes we are asking them to make, and they take the safety of students at this event very seriously.”
So things to take away if you want to keep one of the most epic nights of the year: 1) chill out when getting on the buses; we all want to get drunk and run around in spandex but everyone has to take it down a couple notches. 2) If you’re caught underage and drinking at the bowling alley, you will get thrown out. Consider yourself warned. 3) Respect the people who put on this event and especially those who work at the bowling alley.
As Grubbs said, “We want to encourage students to do their best to represent their college and their community positively while off-campus.”
Kiki Lenihan
Guest Writer