On Madrigals
Why We Lost the Madrigal Feast and How We Can Get it Back
Helen Highberger and John-Clark Levin
Last Updated: 12/30/09 Section: Features
The result, Snortum says, "was bedlam." An unusually high number of guests came already intoxicated, leading to what Snortum felt was an atmosphere of unprecedented roughness: "There was just so much noise ... both Thursday and Friday night, to clean up the restrooms, the housekeepers, to follow protocol, had to don hazardous waste outfits." Snortum and her staff were indignant. "[We offer a] nice menu, service and everything and all we thought was 'what are we doing this for?' What's that point, you know?" Snortum says she told then-ASCMC President Hansell that "this will be the last time." Pressed on this fact, given the widespread student ignorance of the decision until just weeks ago, she was insistent. "ASCMC knew [spring of] last year," Snortum asserts, "that this would be discontinued. She says the decision was also announced at the luncheon following a late-September meeting of the Athenaeum Advisory Committee. "So," the CI asked, "the Athenaeum Advisory Committee didn't advise you, or make a recommendation as to what to do?"
"No..." Snortum replied, "It was a staff decision that we were not going to do this." Essentially, she said, it was already "more or less a done deal" by the time the AAC was convened this fall. It had been, she said again, "a staff decision." This she clarified to refer to herself, Athenaeum Manager David Edwards and Dean of Students Jefferson Huang. Snortum expressed confusion that Dean Huang seemed surprised by the decision as late as this October. Although Huang states that he was aware of general discussions of the possibility of canceling Madrigals stretching back at least three years, he says that because they had been cancelled and reinstated several times during his tenure at CMC, it was some time before he realized that Madrigals were, "really, really not happening." Professor Hilary Appel, the Athenaeum Advisory Committee Chair, recalls being aware of Madrigals' cancellation back in the spring, but is unaware of the issue coming up again at the September AAC meeting.
"No..." Snortum replied, "It was a staff decision that we were not going to do this." Essentially, she said, it was already "more or less a done deal" by the time the AAC was convened this fall. It had been, she said again, "a staff decision." This she clarified to refer to herself, Athenaeum Manager David Edwards and Dean of Students Jefferson Huang. Snortum expressed confusion that Dean Huang seemed surprised by the decision as late as this October. Although Huang states that he was aware of general discussions of the possibility of canceling Madrigals stretching back at least three years, he says that because they had been cancelled and reinstated several times during his tenure at CMC, it was some time before he realized that Madrigals were, "really, really not happening." Professor Hilary Appel, the Athenaeum Advisory Committee Chair, recalls being aware of Madrigals' cancellation back in the spring, but is unaware of the issue coming up again at the September AAC meeting.
Be the first to comment on this story