By COLLEEN PEGHER
Editor-in-Chief
This past weekend, Allegheny College hosted its annual Springfest. While the weekend-long event has led to incidents in the past, this weekend ran smoothly, according to school officials.
Director of Safety and Security Jeff Schneider was pleased with the efforts of campus security and local authorities, as well as student conduct.
“It went pretty well I think,” said Schneider. “Most of the students were well behaved. We worked collaboratively with the Meadville City Police Department. They had four police cars in the area most of the weekend, at least during the evening hours. They had a real presence on campus.”
Despite most students’ good behavior, there were a few minor incidents.
“A couple young people, one student and one non-student were arrested by the city police, but other than that it went well,” Schneider said. “Overall, it was responsible drinking.”
While the weather had called for rain and snow throughout the weekend, students did get to see the sun.
“The weather was actually very conducive,” Schneider said. “I saw a lot of pedestrians walking up and down the street.”
The good weather brought students out in full force for the annual event. Seniors Maddie Georgi and Amelia Lord hosted an event at their off-campus house Saturday
“We had a live band which was made up of members from the physics department,” said Lord. “They brought all of their equipment to our back porch and in the process broke one of our steps.”
Their house, located on Park Avenue, did sustain some minor damages. Following Saturday’s festivities, their backyard sustained more serious damage.
“All of the grass in our backyard was destroyed and it’s a giant mud pit now, and most of that mud was also tracked into our house and we hired a carpet cleaner the next day to clean it,” Lord said. “All of the furniture that was in our backyard was burned. I mean, it needed to be, but even like plastic chairs and stuff were melted which then totally messed up our fire pit.”
Lord also complained of several acts of vandalism, but laughed them off as consequences of hosting an event on Springfest weekend.
“There’s ketchup graffitied all over the one side of our house,” said Lord.
“Someone sat on top of the basketball roof throwing stuff at people, and then he tried to steal the curtain off of our front door,” said Georgi. “Our roommate caught him running down the street with it.”
Local bars also dealt with the massive crowds, as students and alumni flocked downtown to continue the party.
“All of the bars were ‘at capacity’ which was incredibly annoying,” said Georgi.
