Pierce holds first dance in four years

After much debate, luau dance was held in the HEC

By: Lancelot Purdue

Posted: 6/4/09

Where you hear the word luau what do you think about? Hawaii? Roasted pig? Poi? How about two Lakewood police officers frisking you?

That was the first thing that students experienced at Pierce's luau dance that took place on May 15.

According to ASPCFS President Samantha Lopez, this was the first dance at Pierce College in seven years.

"There were two dances back in the mid 90s where incidents occurred that resulted in dances being suspended for sometime," Duncan Stevenson, director of district athletics, said.

The reason they were suspended was that both dances had involved gunshots being fired in the North parking lot.

"It was felt by the college's administration that the potential risk involved was not worth the social benefit or possible financial gain for the student organizations," Stevenson said. "Dances were suspended for four years before interest was raised by a student organization."

The HEC was decorated with tropical decorations and paper pineapples. Pizza, soda, rice crispy treats, and suckers were offered for the attendees. Aloha.

The dance started at 9 p.m. and by 10 p.m. the entire basketball court was empty, except for a few small groups of people scattered here and there.

Some students got into the Aloha spirit and were wearing Hawaiian shirts and other "tropical" outfits.

"It makes me think of one middle school dance I went to that had crappy music," Kevin Hamrick said.

Having the luau dance in the gym looked ridiculous because there were half a dozen people in a huge space.

The biggest problem with the dance was the motion sensors. What happens with motion sensors is that they keep lights on when they sense motion.

Maybe the gym wasn't the best place to have an event at night where people were moving around.

After some clever brainstorming by the Student Government, the dance was moved to the classroom on the top floor of the HEC.

It took thirty minutes to move the DJ booth, sound equipment, stage and lights upstairs. Students stood around and ate food while the equipment was transferred.

After the sound equipment was moved the dance was back underway. Little by little people moved upstairs and they finally started to dance. Two hours after the initial start the dance had begun at 11 p.m.

"I think the dance should have been promoted more," Ashley Jackson, administrative senator, said. "Promotion is everything."

There were a lot of representatives from Student Government and Student Programs at the luau dance. President elect Xavier Lebron was walking around trying to get people to dance and have fun.

"It's not much of a dance," student Monique Sellers, said. "It more of a social, network, get together."

Pierce seemed to have fixed the security problem with the addition of police officers at the dance.

The next thing they need to fix is how to get people to attend these dances and participate.