Pagaent hurt by lack of teamwork

RYAN NORRIS STAFFWRITER

This year's Mr./Miss Cabrini Pageant was a successful event thanks to everyone who helped out. Congratulations to John Verdi and Laura Cover, our new Mr. and Miss Cabrini. I want to thank our judges, contestants, all of the volunteers, the crowd for all of their support, and most of all the Sophomore Class Board members who made this event happen. As I said, this event was a successes, however people need to know how our community was affected.

November 22, 2002 was the Mr./Miss Cabrini Pageant here at Cabrini. I myself, along with the sophomore class board, was in charge of this pageant as Sophomore Class president. This event is the key event that the sophomore class is responsible for. I wanted to make sure this event went well so I registered the event in July when nothing was scheduled. I registered it for a Friday night when nothing else ·was registered. Four months later, I found out there was a problem. It was two weeks before the event when I was told that there was a play going on that night also. I was getting a little nervous for the actors and actresses because I knew our event might get loud and bleed sound through their performance. I was in for a rude awakening when I found out the Pageant must be held in the cafeteria. Neil Newman fought against this Pageant, and somehow, with the help of Academic Affairs, emptied Grace Hall out.

While Student Affairs and Dr. Iadarola's office initially agreed that we were right, the office of Academic Affairs took up Newman's cause and convinced the President to move our event.

There are three locations to know if an event is scheduled. When you register in Grace Hall, they post online every event that is registered. There are fall Calendars all over campus with events scheduled for the fall semester. There is also a calendar online on the Cabrini College web site. There is no evidence in any of these three locations that there was a play scheduled. They do however have the pageant scheduled in the registrar's office, which is posted online.

One of the major reasons we were given by Bozone as to why we had to change our location was that Newman had already blanketed the campus with flyers. I'll note that none of his flyers were stamped nor officially approved as the posting guidelines state. The pageant also had flyers and posters up but were legally stamped and approved. Having to change our location took more money out of our budget to get more advertising. We had to destroy all of our current ads, and then work twice as hard to get the new location and time out to everyone on campus.

I have nothing against Mr. Newman, and nothing against anyone in this show. They are fantastic and talented. I was a cast member last year, and I understand all of the work put into a play, and how intensely focused the director, cast and crew can get. I feel that no one was flexible in this situation, and there was a lack of negotiation. I'm not upset that the pageant wouldn't be successful, because it was a great event, but I am on the other hand disappointed that Newman doesn't think of Cabrini as a community. Last year Newman wrote a letter to The Loquitur saying, "Cabrini College is a community in which we work together to perform service." Newman needs to think of the community beyond himself. Student-led activities designed to increase student involvement and school spirit are of lesser importance at Cabrini than those created by faculty. I hope that Mr. Newman and the administration will think about the implications of their handling of this matter and implement changes to work with students rather than against them.