As many of the first-years and sophomores at Elizabethtown College know, the Formal Jay was this past Saturday.  Similar to the Junior/Senior formal, this event was a time to have the classes come together to socialize.
Seth Previty, sophomore class president, had high praise for the event this year. He said that, as a first-year last year, he noticed that many of his fellow classmates missed the idea of a homecoming dance. They wanted to plan a similar event for the underclassmen to attend.
The planning for the Formal Jay started last year, as Previty and the rest of the class senate figured out the numbers and details that would have to be taken into consideration for the event.  Originally, the sophomore class wanted the dance to take place in the gym. However, with the low number of attendees and the freshly-painted gym, it was relocated to the KĀV.
Previty was quick to add that the school was pretty easily persuaded when it came to allowing this new event to happen.
The dance was semi-formal, with boys wearing suits and ties and girls wearing party or cocktail  dresses. Campus Security was outside the dance, like all on-campus events, and in order to get into the dance, students had to give their name and student ID. This was to keep track of the attendance numbers; there was no cost to attend the event
Since the Formal Jay is a new event at the College, advertisement was crucial for the class to pull off the event. Posters made by the Office of Student Activities (OSA) were hung in the BSC, flyers were put in each dorm and word-of-mouth helped this event become a success.  Although the class of 2015 was the originator of this new event on campus, they felt it was important to incorporate the class of 2016. That way, the tradition could be carried on, as the class of 2016 would be the ones planning it for next year.
Around 300 people attended the Formal Jay this year. Previty thought that this was a great turnout, and he hopes for it to become a bigger and better tradition for years to come. More people stayed for longer periods of time, he noticed, which was different from normal dances open to the whole school in the KĀV. Decorations, food and the required attire definitely made an impact on the success of the event. This was different from the normal KĀV dances, making it special for the first-years and sophomores. The event ran from 9-12 p.m. with 9-10 p.m. being a social hour with human bingo and raffles.
Previty thought this helped with the comfortableness and social aspect of the dance. Although juniors and seniors were allowed to go if they went with an underclassmen, few went, making it a more comfortable atmosphere for the students as well. Previty hopes that the first-years look forward to planning the Formal Jay next year and that it will be an even greater success in the years to come.