Originated by resident advisor Ivan Loh and sponsored by the Richmond Hall Council, Student Association, and Residence Housing Association, the first annual Richmond Rave has been eagerly planned by students and residence hall staff alike for well over two months now. However, despite the hard work and noble intentions of the planning committee, namely creating a landmark event that raises alcohol and drug awareness, unites the student body, and raises money for a local charity, the Richmond Rave has faced logistical problems from many different sources.
The most damning of these complications stemmed from a serious miscommunication with the staff at Harriman Hall. As with any event, the planning committee for the Richmond Rave immediately sought to find a venue once a date for the event was determined. Harriman Hall was selected, their staff was contacted, and the planning committee made a reservation. Little did we know that the reservation we had placed for Harriman Hall meant very little to their staff.
Within two weeks of our original date, the Harriman Hall staff called to notify us that we were in fact not the first group that had reserved the date we selected as they had told us. In reality, we were the third group to register this date behind two other student groups that had planned events for that very evening. All of our plans stopped short as we tried to sort out the potentially fatal error.
Despite all of our efforts, the staff at Harriman was determined to make us suffer for their scheduling errors and offered us the Sunday night of St. Patrick's Day when we had been planning the event for the Saturday evening before. Facing this challenge, we were forced to change our date. When we learned of an opportunity to hold our event on a Saturday evening without changing venues, we jumped at the opportunity. Harriman ruined our plans again, however, when they wouldn't allow us to take the date because of yet another miscommunication on their part.
Student group leaders, this is not an isolated incident. In the process of dealing with Harriman Hall, the Richmond Rave committee has learned of several other occasions in which student groups were forced to change venues, dates, or cancel events because of their staff's utter inability to manage the office. My advice is a simple "don't let it happen to you" - don't plan events at Harriman Hall, it's simply not worth the headache.
The Richmond Rave will rock on this Saturday, April 6, 2002 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Diefendorf Hall on South Campus, with all proceeds to benefit the March of Dimes.
