Seventeen residence halls will hold dances this weekend in advance of a series of home football games.
With fall break, Thanksgiving break and five home football games in between, the next time a dorm could host a dance would be the weekend of Dec. 1 - nearly two months from now, an official in the Student Activities Office (SAO) said.
"In the fall semester, it's common to see many dances occurring on the weekends of away football games," said Peggy Hnatusko, the director of programming for student activities.
The lack of available venues and campus resources prevents dorms from holding dances on home football weekends, she said.
Many dorms hold their dances on away football weekends, but this weekend has five times more dances - commonly known as SYRs - than any other weekend so far this semester, according to the SAO's 2007-08 Residence Hall dances schedule.
There is no limit to how many dorms can hold SYRs in a given weekend, Hnatusko said. But a large number requires a great deal of work from campus resources used for dances.
Campus services, like Catering by Design, have been preparing for the busy weekend.
"Catering is attempting to work with students as flexibly as possible to accommodate the needs they have during these weekends," said Lisa Wenzel, Catering by Design's assistant director for special events.
Catering by Design tries to plan ahead and to be proactive when residence halls begin to coordinate a dance, she said.
Although demands on campus services will be high, Wenzel said, the catering service has enough staffers ready to work the events.
While campus services may not have a difficult time adjusting to busy SYR weekends, students, like sophomore Ryan Lavorgna, often find it difficult especially when it comes to finding a date.
"It's hard to find someone to go to an SYR with when it seems like every dorm is having their own SYR," Lavorgna said.
Three of the dances will be held off campus, Hnatusko said.
Some of the themes of this weekend's SYRs include "Catholic School Girl" for Walsh Hall, "Rock star" for O'Neill, "Disco" for Keenan and "Party Like a Rock Star" for the dance co-hosted by the four dorms on Mod Quad.
