U.C. Deserves Credit for Formal

Thanks go to the Undergraduate Council for the wonderful party it hosted at the Park Plaza. The First-year Formal was a night I will happily remember for years. From the start to the (too early) finish, it was pure magic. The ladies were stunning, and the gentlemen were most handsome.

Receiving a hand stamp from Lamelle Rawlins '99 at the door--reminiscent of trips to Disney World when I was 10, seemed a bit childish and informal--but the half-filled hearts some wore found complements as the evening progressed.

As spirit (and population) grew with the night, the dance floor quickly became inadequate, drawing mild rebuke from sardined dancers.

But enterprising party-goers remedied the situation with the aplomb of the best MIT engineers, taking to dancing on the carpet, in the balcony and, in the case of one pair of gentlemen, on the tables.

A few setbacks befell the celebration but were well withstood. Our Olde Town Trolley driver, who found trouble finding her way out of the Square and then confidently dropped us off in front of the Radisson Hotel, drew a few rude comments from drunk first-years.

On the whole though, trolley service was convenient, improved over the reportedly inadequate support at City Step. A few misguided ladies lit cigarettes on the dance floor, but immediately stepped off in response to polite requests from fellow dancers.

Perhaps they got the wrong impression from the council members handing out souvenir cigars at the exit door. These were certainly not intended for consumption. (Surely, students at and anti-drug University would not encourage others, several of whom are minors, to smoke.)

At the celebration's close, gentlemen with commemorative cigars and ladies with red roses boarded the trolleys back to fair Harvard all aglow.

To my fellow first-years who stayed home, I exhort you to not miss the next formal. To the Council, thank you very much for your magnificent and successful effort to make the First-year Formal a wonderful Harvard memory. --Michael Brauwerman '00