Contract negotiations between the Student Government and the Post Office Pavilion were on-track and the Founders’ Day Ball would have occurred on time, had D.C. not been hit by two record snowfalls last week, according to SG Vice President Alex Prescott.
Director of the Founders’ Day Ball Jacque Martin, who is responsible for planning the event, said that she could not say for certain whether the Ball would have occurred on time, but believes that both she and Prescott had done everything possible to ensure the Ball’s occurrence.
Friday, Feb. 5 was the final deadline to lock up the Post Office Pavilion as the site of the Ball. When the snowstorm shut down the federal government as well as AU, the deadline was missed.
“When it snowed, the pavilion closed,” Martin said. “Management offices closed with the federal government; Student Activities offices closed when the school closed. We had to wait till the next Friday to decide officially to postpone it.”
The Ball will be rescheduled, though the exact date is still to be determined.
Nirvana Habash, an undergraduate senator with previous experience in event planning for the SG, said she supports both Prescott’s and Martin’s explanation.
“It wasn’t anything they lied about,” she said. “It was, honestly, the snowstorm. Moreover the [pavilion] did not respond to them as often as they tried to talk to them.”
Planning events is a longer, more difficult process than many understand, Martin said. She said she has been working with the Post Office Pavilion since last semester to determine the details of the contract.
Martin submitted the contract to the venue in mid-January.
“We were told two weeks tops for this review process,” she said. “Our timeline was what we thought was good for what we were doing.”
Furthermore, many catering halls will not sign contracts far in advance because their prices or policies may change in that time.
“You can only start so early,” she said. “Some venues will say, ‘Yes we’ll reserve the date but we’re not going to start processing this because what happens if we change our fees or change our ideas.’”
Prescott and Martin would have attempted to procure backup venues, but it is considered unprofessional to attempt to sign contracts with other places, according to Prescott.
“Venues have blacklists of organizations that they did not like working with in the past,” he said. “If our first venue says yes and we have to cancel on our second venue after putting in our application, it risks future relations with that venue.”
Plans had been discussed to host the Ball in Bender Arena or the Katzen Arts Center, according to Prescott. However, the snowstorm affected more than just the venue; it also prevented necessary shipments of flowers and gifts for the students, he said.
“It’s not just one or the other,” he said. “If we had the venue OK’d and the snow still hit and postponed all the orders, we couldn’t have held it at the Post Office Pavilion anyway, because we would have had it in an empty room.”
The postponement of the Ball has led to criticism of Prescott. In a letter obtained by The Eagle, Josh Kaplan, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he was “furious” that his tuition dollars would pay Prescott’s salary.
“You were elected to coordinate these events, which are some of the only traditions this University has,” the letter said. “I demand that you resign from your office, and I am publicly calling for either your resignation or for long, but necessary impeachment proceedings.”
Prescott said he had received e-mails complaining that the Founders’ Day Ball is always held on the same day — a claim he says is not true.
“It’s not,” he said. “A couple years ago ... it was the first weekend of February. Student Activities said it best — it would have been a logistical nightmare to try to put that all together after the offices opened again.”
Prescott said he was glad students were getting involved in the SG and that he hopes students dissatisfied with his performance will go to the Undergraduate Senate meeting Sunday to voice their displeasure during public comment.
Both Prescott and Habash have said that some of the controversy surrounding the Founders’ Day Ball cancellation is due to tensions in the SG between Prescott’s fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
“There’s always going to be a little tension [between competing fraternities],” Prescott said. “I’d like to think we leave that outside as soon we walk into the Senate.”
Both fraternities denied allegations of tension existing between the fraternities.
“Like SigEp, we have brothers who have been and who are involved in Student Government,” said Josh Cook, public relations chair for AEPi. “Any past SG events involving our members is just coincidence, not affronts to other SG members’ fraternities.”
President of SigEp, Daniel Saavedra, also denied any animosity.
“There is absolutely no truth to rumors that a feud exists between our fraternity and AEPi,” he said. “We have always maintained a strong relationship with all members of the AU community and are dedicated to improving AU as a whole.”
The postponement of the Ball will be discussed Sunday during the next session of the Undergraduate Senate. Both Prescott and Martin are expected to testify at the meeting.
Habash said the AU community will know the truth of who is behind the controversy based on who shows up at the Senate meeting.
“In order for it to be a really legitimate claim [that Prescott has mishandled the Ball], I would really appreciate it if more students from a diverse body of organizations came out on Sunday,” she said. “I’ve never heard [AEPi and SigEp] ever talk about each other in a bad light, unless it’s in terms of Student Government.”
You can reach this staff writer at cszold@theeagleonline.com.
