By Jack Beall–
Covid has taken many activities away from Gonzaga this year including homecoming, football games, pep rallies, and prom. Many seniors were very upset and feeling like they were being robbed of such experiences. Luckily, the SGA, including President Mak Krivka, refused to let COVID-19 take all of these away from us. This is when they decided to have a “Senior Social.”
The Senior Social wasn’t meant to be prom because prom simply is not possible with current pandemic regulations. It was, however, supposed to be an activity in which the seniors get to have a prom-like experience of bringing dates and socializing with their friends.
Krivka explained the goal of the social.
“It is to give students and their dates a night of fun on Eye Street, on the field, in the courtyard with games, music, karaoke, and food,” Krivka said.
The Senior Social was held on Friday, May 7 and was “Roaring 20s” themed, and it had lawn games like cornhole and spikeball for students and their dates to take on opposing couples.
One of the parts of the night that Krivka was most excited about was the food. He has assured that the SGA and Gonzaga have worked hard to get a variety of caterers with all types of foods for the night. This way there were options for every person in attendance. Krivka said that the food situation will be an “International Food Fair style display.” Krivka said that he hopes that the night will be similar to “a more formal Gonzagafest.”
The Senior Social, like everything else in the COVID-19 era, came with its regulations. Gonzaga alerted the students that they must continue to comply with the guidelines set by the CDC and the city of Washington, D.C. This means that there was a health check-in for everybody in attendance and a mandatory mask policy; social distancing was enforced. One of the biggest differences between this event and the normal prom is that there will be no dancing. There will still be a DJ playing music for all guests, but it would simply be impossible to maintain a social distance if dancing was allowed.
Krivka said there were a few things that he hopes each student and their dates will take away from the Senior Social. First, he wants seniors to feel like they have moved a great distance from zoom school last year, and even while so much of senior year was taken, he wants seniors to know that as a community they are making the most of the situation we are in.
“That Gonzaga attitude of true care for its students is what makes it such a special place of community,” Krivka said. If he wants one thing of the night, it is “to give every Gonzaga Student one final, great, lasting Gonzaga memory with our classmates that we have spent the past four years making.”