On Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m., the Residence Hall Association (RHA) of Saint Mary’s College held its first initial sale for the 2025 formal dance for merchandise and tickets. Premiering their first ever online ticket sale, students lined up in the Student Center commons for a chance to snag a baby pink sweater and scan the ticket QR code.
Further adding to the excitement was the second floor pop-up that displayed light up signage, sweet treats and a backdrop with a hint as to what this year’s theme would be. The design read, “Smicks are a Girl’s Best Friend,” a nod to the aesthetic of old Hollywood film.
Organizing the event were RHA president junior Bella Perry, co-chairs junior Mia Therapos, sophomore Kayla Pleiness and freshman Kirra Halfman. Halfman explained the approaches that the association wanted to take with this year’s planning. From picking a theme to decorations and information roll out, the group had to plan considerably ahead for the event on March 29.
“[Therapos and I] came up with a theme in September, and ever since then, we’ve been planning decorations and all that stuff,” Pleiness said.
Therapos emphasized her excitement for planning the formal and the ideas she has to offer.
“As a junior, I’ve had two formals before, and I’ve always been interested in the process of planning and getting everything together,” Therapos said. “I’ve taken notes on what they’ve done in previous years, and now we are also trying to put our own spin on it and come up with our own ideas. We are having some more surprises this year, because we want to make it more exciting than previous years.”
Together, Therapos and Halfman worked with Perry to create a more efficient way of processing and purchasing tickets to combat the commotion of long lines in cold weather as seen in previous years.
“Any Saint Mary’s students in the past have probably waited in line for formal tickets, and it’s very arduous, and we wanted to make it more accessible and a stress-free process for everyone involved, including the RHA members working it,” Perry said. “Additionally, we’ve brought back merch sales this year for formal and just kind of making it more like an event, because it’s the only formal that Saint Mary’s has.”
The new addition of online ticket sales has seen some backlash, as some students who were unable to enter their request for purchase saw a message pop-up that said “A max capacity has been reached. A pause has been put on sales.”
When asked about the complications, Therapos said, “We expected some challenges, because with technology comes challenges, and this is our first time doing this, so we didn’t really know what to expect.”
Halfman ensures students can count on RHA to “do the right thing,” as plans are put in place for the exceeding ticket sales.
“We’ve really looked at it from all the angles, and we’re like, ‘How can we make this right? How can we benefit everyone?’” Halfman said. “We’re gonna take all the resources that we can get to make sure that everyone gets a ticket and is able to [have] fun, because that’s what they deserve.”
Tickets will be sold until Feb. 26, with the dance being held on March 29 at the Gillespie Conference Center.
