In February 2006, while setting up for the annual 80s Harris party, former ACE coordinator Julia Bottles ’08 suffered a severe foot injury after a party platform collapsed because of a broken safety latch. Now, nearly two years later, confusion and questions persist over the role of party organizers in setting up platforms before Harris parties.
Following her injury, Bottles, Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Crady and Senior Associate Dean for Student Life Michael Sims agreed that all the platforms would be repaired and that students would no longer be responsible for setting up platforms alone. Bottles said she ultimately pushed to have Facilities Management set up the platforms before parties. “I was told that wasn't practical,” she said. “And I was also told that it would make more sense for the Harris desk attendants, who are paid to set up Harris, to be trained and able to put those platforms in place.”
Current ACE coordinator T.J. Hawley ’10 said party organization should be “a collaboration between party organizers and [Harris] staff to take platforms out and put them away.”
“Organizers don’t do it on their own,” she added, “but they shouldn’t expect someone else to put [the platforms] up.”
Still, Bottles feels that asking students to maneuver heavy equipment is inherently dangerous. “It's irresponsible to ask students to do that when they don't understand the implications of something going wrong,” she said.
The administration, however, views Bottles’ incident as an isolated event, and feels that the changes made to the platforms and the policy have significantly reduced any danger. “It was unfortunate,” Sims said of the incident, “But we haven't had any other problems.”
Still, changes to the policy have not prevented confusion. At the recent Oral Hygiene party, organizer Spencer Green ’08 said, “When [the party] was over, and even setting up, we chose not to move the platforms. We had a discussion about whether we should have to move them … we were unclear about their policy.”
Green said that Harris staff ultimately assisted them is setting up the platforms, which is consistent with the current policy requirements.
The currently policy, Sims said, differs little from what existed when he first came to Grinnell. “What they're being told now,” Sims said, “is that a minimum of two people should put the platforms down because they are heavy ... at the end, they are asked to put the platforms away.”
If there is no activity on Saturday, the platforms stay out after Friday Harris parties.
Sims added that funding challenges mean that Harris staff would be unable to put up the platforms without the assistance of party organizers. “The amount of funding for student employment has been decreased for the second year,” Sims said. “It doesn't make sense to have several Harris staff come in to setup platforms.”
Sims said that he would be willing to discuss options with student concerned about the use of Harris platforms. “Just because we've been doing it this way doesn't make it right,” he said.
“If there is going to be change,” Hawley added, “it must come from students.”
