For the first time since its conception six years ago, the popular Gelb Dance left a tangible disaster in its wake: Chand Sripad, the Chemistry Lab and Safety Supervisor, walked into the stockroom to find the shattered glass of lab equipment on the floor the day after the dance last February. The destroyed equipment cost Ms. Sripad an hour of time to clean up and the school two hundred dollars to replace, resulting in the cancellation of the Gelb Dance.
Although the school’s reasons for cancelling the dance are legitimate, the student body’s displeasure should not be ignored. The Gelb Dance was a hallmark of social life at Andover: its three different floors of music were often gushed about to new students, and the event was anticipated months in advance. Not only did the well-attended Gelb Dance provide students with an opportunity to engage themselves in campus and social life, but it also created an outlet for students to relieve their stress, thus acting as one of the most integral aspects of life at Andover. Considering the unusual nature of this accident, it seems unfair to deprive the student body of such privileges without first consulting students or the student representatives in Student Council.
Rather than stripping Andover of such a valued tradition, we should instead focus on preventing the damage from recurring in the future. The destruction of scientific equipment could have easily been prevented by a few simple precautionary measures. Short of moving all materials from the stockroom, some sort of drape, curtain or screen could be secured to the front of the stockroom shelves to keep hazardous chemicals and fragile apparati on the rack. Such preventative steps and pre-dance preparations could be added to the responsibilities of students with Science Department work duty or those on the Student Activities Board. Establishing these new regulations would stave off future wreckage while still providing students with this unique dance.
Equipment damage can be averted. After all, the Gelb Dance had been running quite smoothly before last year’s incident. In the September 19, 2014 issue of The Phillipian, Christopher Capano, Director of Student Activities, mentioned a possible alternative held in Paresky Commons. The allure of Gelb, however, lies in its novelty; with so many dances already held in Paresky and in Susie’s, we, the students, would be willing to go the extra mile in preparations to preserve it. I hope that, with better communication and cooperation between students and faculty, we can find a solution in time for next February.
_Nancy Kim is a two-year Lower from Seoul, South Korea._
