During a pandemic, everything changes on a daily basis —including Allegheny events.

The dodgeball tournament originally scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12, was postponed after President Hilary Link sent a  campus-wide email on Thursday, Sept. 10, announcing that the on-campus quarantine has been extended until further notice.

Program Coordinator for the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Social Justice Center Mikka Hunt described the event as helping students begin the new academic year.

“This event is a part of the robust campus programming to kick off the start of the academic year,” Hunt said in an email to The Campus. “As of right now, there aren’t many teams signed up, but there has been high participation in all of the other outdoor active events so we are very excited to see the turn out.  The winning team will receive a gift certificate to the campus bookstore.”

Hunt added that the event was originally not advertised for an audience, due to only being able to have 50 people gathered safely outside.

After the quarantine extension, Hunt said that the event will be rescheduled to continue to keep everyone on campus as safe as possible.

“We are invested in keeping the campus community safe and look forward to seeing everyone have fun and show off some dodgeball skills at the make-up date,” Hunt said.

Austin Reardon, ’23, Joseph Friedman, ’23, and Daniel Logue, ’23, were all originally going to play in the game last weekend, and they expressed disappointment after the cancellation of the tournament.

“I mean, yeah, it’s a fun game,” Reardon said. “I got asked and I thought it would be fun, and I mean I had nothing at four on Saturday, because who has things at four on Saturday? I played it in PE a lot so I thought it would be fun.”

According to Logue, dodgeball brings back childhood memories, and it is something pure that college kids would have been able to do on the weekend.

“Dodgeball is a fun game,” Logue said. “It gets people outside in the fresh air, and it gives us something pure and fun to do on the weekend, when we could just be out drinking.”

Friedman explained that, while he felt it was important for health reasons for everyone to do what they can to keep the campus safe, he was also disappointed in the lack of campus community he was feeling this year.

“I came back to campus because I wanted to be back in the small campus community,” Friedman said. “But when things like the dodgeball tournament are being cancelled — events that were able to be socially distant and safe — it takes away from that campus community.”

Reardon expressed his anger at the event being cancelled, saying that the event was already going to happen last weekend before the original end of quarantine date.

“I think it’s a little hypocritical for the administration to be able to go out and live their lives, when we can’t even play a game where we would just be throwing balls and would’ve been able to be socially distant and safe while doing it,” Reardon said.

Along similar lines, Friedman expressed confusion on the same matter.

“I just think it’s weird that the administration is allowed to go to things like games when we can’t even go to Walmart,” Friedman said.

Logue agreed with these statements, saying that he thought President Hilary Link was doing a good job, and that it was important for people to remain healthy. Logue also expressed that he wished the administration would be cognisant of how they appear to the students by not always following the Gator Pledge themselves. Additionally, Logue said he misses the intimate campus community and wants to be able to have that again.

“This is a small, intimate campus,” Logue said. “I’m a little bit sad that I can’t meet some of the freshmen class like I used to be able to do. Being a part of the swim team, I have met some of the men on the team, but not many of the women. I know it’s important for people’s health, but I also think we need to send out the rule breakers, and those who violate the Gator Pledge.”

The myAllegheny post announcing the dodgeball tournament being postponed encouraged those interested to be on the lookout for the new date.