The University of Minnesota fired Gopher’s men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson on Thursday, according to a press release from the University.

Johnson, a former Gopher, coached the men’s basketball team for four years. He had two seasons remaining on his contract, with a $2.92 million buyout. Johnson’s annual salary was the lowest in the league at $1.95 million, ESPN reported.

“These decisions are difficult and are made after careful consideration and evaluation,” Mark Coyle, University’s director of athletics, said in a statement. “The expectation for our program is to compete for championships, and unfortunately, we have not done that in the last four years.”

The Gophers finished their season 15-17 after losing to Northwestern University on Wednesday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, their fifth loss of the last six games.

“This is an extremely desirable job in one of the best conferences and cities in the nation, and we fully expect to compete at the highest level on and off the court,” Coyle said in the statement. “Ben is a terrific person and we wish him well.”

Coyle said the University will immediately begin a nationwide search for the next men’s basketball coach.

Around 50 people attended a pro-Palestine protest Tuesday in solidarity with Monday’s occupation of Morrill Hall at the University of Minnesota.

Put on by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the protest started around 4:30 p.m. in front of Coffman Union and then marched to stand in front of Morrill Hall, which was occupied in a Students for Democratic Society (SDS) protest Monday evening where 11 protesters were arrested.

SJP media consultant Ali Abu said SJP decided to come back to Morrill Hall the day after the occupation in solidarity with the 11 people arrested, eight of whom were University students.

A SAFE-U alert at 5:06 p.m. stated certain buildings on campus would be locked until further notice due to the protest activity.

Abu said yesterday’s protest was due to the now “infamous” protest policy, the University’s decision to stay neutral in terms of divestment and the chalking warning.

“They basically gave a warning to SJP for chalking at Coffman,” Abu said. “You can’t get a warning for chalking, that’s really weird.”

Speakers at the protest include SJP and SDS members, along with University faculty. Attendees held photos of people and children who were killed in Palestine and chanted “Free, free Palestine.”

Other chants included “How many kids did you kill today?” and “Israel bombs, U of M pays.” 

Abu said the plan is to keep doing whatever is needed to win divestment.

“The students are ready to protest, they’re ready to escalate and do whatever the case, whatever it is, to get what we want, which is divestment,” Abu said.

The protest ended around 6 p.m. and according to a SAFE-U alert sent at 6:20 p.m., all University buildings reopened except Morrill Hall and Coffman.

Minneapolis police officers shot and killed a man in response to a 911 call that came in just after 9 p.m. Wednesday night in south Minneapolis, according to Police Chief Brian O’Hara. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the incident.

O’Hara said at a news conference that the call came from the 3000 block of 29th Avenue as multiple people were concerned about a man who was talking to himself and armed with a handgun. 

A second call came in about 16 minutes after the first call from the 3400 block of Hiawatha Avenue. The caller said they saw a man “acting irrationally” and displaying a handgun, according to O’Hara. 

Officers responded to the call and began chasing the suspect on foot, telling the man they were police and ordering him to stop, but the suspect did not comply, the chief said. 

O’Hara said officers gave multiple commands to drop the gun, and when the suspect did not, officers then shot the man. 

Police secured the man’s handgun after the shooting, which appeared to be jammed, according to O’Hara.

The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to O’Hara. 

The chief said four officers responded to the 911 call and three officers fired their weapons. He added he did not know whether the suspect fired his gun, but said the officers’ decision to shoot the man was justified and lawful.

The University of Minnesota’s Student Unions and Activities (SUA) hosts events, entertainment and opportunities for students to find community and connect on campus, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. 

With over 200 students employed annually, SUA works to provide students with events like trivia, bingo, line dancing and making tie blankets. 

According to Sydney Amundson, a second-year student, SUA has four different committees with their own subcommittees: Social, which has an array of events mostly aimed toward making new friends; Gamerooms, which includes trivia and bingo; Music Groups, which hosts concerts, open mic night and the Battle of the Bands in The Whole; and Homecoming and Spring Jam. 

Amundson works in Gamerooms and is the bingo host, planning the weekly Wednesday event. 

Like trivia, Amundson said bingo themes are planned the semester before and they work them into what prizes people would like. 

Amundson added they have a few regular theme ideas, like blankets or stuffed animals, but find it fun to come up with new themes relevant to pop culture moments. 

“We really try to center it around something that everyone will have access to and things that will bring community to anyone that wants to go to the event on campus because we know we have a very diverse campus and it’s important to make sure that everyone can be included in our events,” Amundson said. 

Calvin Hume, a second-year student and Gamerooms event planner, said planning events takes a lot of work, including communication and ensuring everything runs smoothly.

“There’s a lot of work, you know, that people might not see at our events, and I think that’s important to be recognized,” Hume said. 

Hume is the SUA trivia host, planning themes, prizes and questions for the weekly game night. He said the trivia themes are planned out the semester before and then the questions are written the week before the event. 

“We have ideas to make the trivia theme more engaging,” Hume said. “Like for Glee trivia, we rented a slushie machine, which was really fun. We’re always thinking of ways to make trivia more engaging and fun for the audience.” 

Hume said that for trivia, the most challenging aspect is finding the right balance between easy and challenging questions. 

“People are upset if it’s too easy, but they’re upset if it’s too hard,” Hume said. “So just trying to find the mix of the right questions.” 

Despite the challenges, Hume said his favorite part is the social aspect and getting to know the regulars who attend trivia every week. 

Even though both Hume and Amundson are hosts for regular events, Amundson said they also help and host other events. She added that the process for coming up with new events is a long one. 

“First we get the idea and then I have to send it to my supervisor, who sends it to another supervisor, who sends it to another supervisor, and they say we have to propose a date,” Amundson said.

Choosing a date for the event can be difficult as it cannot be on the same day as other events and, with four committees, Amundson said trying not to overlap is difficult. 

Ashley Kaser, the student events and entertainment program manager, said planning an event happens in different phases. 

Kaser said the first phase is brainstorming, where the team researches what is trending. She added that it might include looking at other events or seeing what students are into. 

The next phase is finding a date and figuring out how to make the event happen, Kaser said. She added that once there is a theme, students then figure out the activities, food and different elements of the event that need to be executed. 

“Once you have that, then it starts getting a lot more concrete,” Kaser said. “You start contracting with vendors or you start placing orders or solidifying those details with the vendors. It goes from this ideation into an actual concrete plan.” 

Kaser added that after the specifics of the event are planned, the marketing team gets involved to communicate the event with the student body. 

“Then it’s actually executing an event, and a lot of that people at our events probably see,” Kaser said. “But there’s certainly things where we’re there a couple of hours before the event getting everything set up, and then we’re there after the event making sure everything gets torn down.”

Hume said the group has been successful at not having any delays in events this year.

“It does take a lot of work,” Hume said. “There’s lots of communication between outside vendors or outside groups that myself and my co-workers, we are all doing constantly when we’re at work. Trying to make sure that everything goes on schedule is really important, and we’ve been really pretty successful not having any delays in our events this year.” 

Both Kaser and Amundson said SUA does a lot of feedback forms to make sure their events run smoothly in the future. 

Events that Kaser said she enjoyed throughout the year include Candy Land bingo, tie-blanket and unique bingo and trivia themes such as colors, drag bingo and Harry Potter. 

Amundson said her favorite events from the year were diamond painting, line dancing and trivia. 

Kaser said there are opportunities for students to get involved, whether that be through SUA jobs or volunteer opportunities. 

“We’ll start hiring again in August if people are looking to actually plan events, or we have our volunteer opportunity, which we call Gold Group, [which] is constantly open and people can sign up for that if they are interested in seeing behind the scenes and helping out with events,” Kaser said. 

The 38th annual American Indian Graduation Celebration at Minneapolis College Friday night celebrated Indigenous students graduating from colleges and universities. 

The program featured graduates from 22 tribes and 15 schools in the Twin Cities areas, including 16 graduates from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 

Pauline Danforth, a planning committee member for 25 years, said the celebration was started by a group of people from various colleges who worked with American Indian students. 

“Indian people need to be recognized for graduating from colleges and universities,” Danforth said. “Education is a way out of poverty and a lot of people have shied away from higher education because of the history of the boarding schools.” 

Danforth said graduates range from 20-year-olds to 70-year-olds. She added that a 74-year-old woman graduated last year and her granddaughter graduated this year. 

Skyla Knudtson, a University of Minnesota-Twin Cities student graduating from the College of Veterinary Medicine, said she got the invitation and thought it was important to celebrate the success of Indigenous people. 

“It’s important for our community to be able to recognize our successes and support each other and I think this is a great way to do it,” Knudtson said.

Joleece Pecore, a University student graduating in American Indian Studies and Art, said she came to the graduation celebration because she had friends who helped plan it. 

“I came to this because it’s a way to recognize all of our accomplishments and not only Native people, but Native women,” Pecore said. 

Pecore added it is cool to see all the different colleges and Native people being recognized because of the big urban Native demographic in the Twin Cities. 

“For Native people to graduate from university or colleges, it’s such a small number of us, so it’s nice to be recognized this way,” Pecore said. 

Taryn Long, a University student graduating in American Indian Studies, said the celebration is a great way to acknowledge and recognize Native people in higher education and their accomplishments.

“It’s really important and it’s really nice to be around community and people from different schools and colleges because we all share similar struggles,” Long said. “We all come from different backgrounds, but we all come together as a community, so I think that’s really nice.” 

Pecore said she was most looking forward to receiving a Native graduation stole. Long said she was also excited to get a stole and about being recognized for all her accomplishments in undergrad. 

Danford said her favorite part of the celebration is seeing joy in the students. 

Funding is the celebration’s largest challenge, as the event costs about $10,000, Danford said. 

Lloyd Wittstock, who used to be on the planning committee, said the committee struggled to find the right venue, as the celebration has outgrown several other places. 

Pecore and Long said it is important for people to know the event is community-based, like many Native events. 

“Native people are here,” Pecore said. “We’re not extinct, we’re not away. We’ve been here and we’ll always be here.”

Teamsters Local 320 filed an unfair labor practice charge against the University of Minnesota Tuesday on the issue of dining hall employees and summer work.

Teamsters alleged the University committed two violations of the Minnesota Public Employment Labor Relations Act, according to the charge. The first allegation is the University has not negotiated in good faith on the topic of summer work and the second is the University not allowing Teamsters union to file union grievances. 

The Teamsters negotiated and agreed to a new labor agreement in October 2022 with the University that contained a Memorandum of Understanding concerning summer work for University dining employees on the Twin Cities campus, according to the charge.

The memorandum was meant to create work opportunities for dining employees during the summer break and provide a guarantee of 30 hours of work per week for 12-month dining employees who participated in a bidding process for summer work. 

Jackson Kerr, a Teamsters business agent, said most of the summer positions offered this year do not start until June or July. He added this is a violation of the agreement, which says the University should provide all positions a minimum of 30 hours of work for each week over the summer. 

For the over 150 12-month dining services employees, there are about 85 summer jobs offered with 10 more positions available in departments not in dining, Kerr said. 

“That is one thing that we believe we were misled on during negotiations,” Kerr said. “We believe that the University negotiated in bad faith.” 

Kerr is the one who filed the charge and he said he sent it to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which will have a hearing on the matter and may assign an investigator to look into the alleged charges.

If found guilty, Kerr said PERB can direct the University to follow the law and make changes in regard to the union and summer work. 

Kerr added the University has an opportunity to meet with the union to settle any disputes brought up in the unfair labor practice before PERB does anything.

“We have a serious problem right now with how the University is implementing the summer work program that we negotiated and it’s our belief as a union that the University is purposefully undermining the contract language that they negotiated a couple of years ago,” Kerr said. 

In an interview several hours before the unfair labor practice charge was filed on Tuesday, University Services Vice President Alice Roberts-Davis said she had not heard of any issues in regard to the contract or summer work. Through a University spokesperson, Roberts-Davis declined to comment after the charge was filed, saying it is not University practice to comment about active litigation.

“People are always excited for summer for a variety of different reasons,” Roberts-Davis said. “Some of them want to continue to work during the summer and that’s what’s best for them and their family situation. Other people are really excited about taking the summer off and they’ve got kids that they want to spend time with or travel or do whatever they enjoy doing in the summer.” 

According to Roberts-Davis, the number of positions available tends to work out with the number of people interested in summer work, and if not, an on-call list is another option. 

Sam Thibert is currently a cook at Pioneer Hall but with the way the bidding process for this summer’s jobs went, he will be on-call for the summer. 

Thibert said round one of the bidding process is to bid on jobs within the same current classification. He added every position he was offered in round one consisted of extremely inconsistent hours. 

“For the last two years, I’ve structured my life around working 12 to 8 [p.m.], or being a p.m. cook,” Thibert said. “With the schedules that are offered, they’re forcing me to commit to work 6[a.m.] to 2[p.m.] one day, the next day come in 12 to 8[p.m]. I just can’t, that’s just not something that works for me, I can’t commit to that.” 

Thibert said by round two of the bidding process, the only position available to him was in facilities management, working from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., after he clarified he could not work mornings. 

“In my case as a cook, the amount of jobs compared to last summer for cooks were extremely limited,” Thibert said. “A lot of the cook jobs were converted into food service worker jobs.” 

According to Thibert, few employees got what they wanted unless they were high on the seniority list. He added this left people the choice to either be flexible in taking the job or be unemployed. 

“For nine months out of the year, we’re essential to their operation while they’re making money hand over fist,” Thibert said. “As soon as the little short few months where they’re not raking it in as much, they’re just showing that it’s not their priority to take care of us and the amount that they are is the bare minimum right now.” 

Roberts-Davis said the University puts a lot of effort into ensuring contracts are clear so people understand what they are expected to do and what the University expects in return. 

“We want to ensure that workers’ rights are very important to us and that we are monitoring the activities within all of the dining halls so that people are being treated fairly and that the contracts are being administered properly,” Roberts-Davis said. 

Kerr said this situation creates problems for people who do not know what to expect when it comes to summer work because of things like rent, groceries or taking care of family. 

“If the University simply did what they told us they were going to do at the negotiations table, it would have a real positive impact on the lives of the people who feed all the students and keep this University running,” Kerr said. 

Thibert said the University told him the issue of fewer available positions is due to a lack of business. He added he believes the University should find a way to generate more business. 

“From a worker’s perspective, it feels like it’s the University’s responsibility to generate that business during the summer and make sure that this business is there for us when they’ve made this commitment to us,” Thibert said. “Now it feels like we’re in a situation where they’re tiptoeing around language and not acting in good faith and kind of hanging a lot of people out to dry.” 

If the University does not want to meet the employees halfway, Thibert said the middle ground would be to have “some human consideration” when making schedules. 

Kerr said he hopes the University will meet with Teamsters and the employees to settle any issues and that changes can be made soon. 

“We hope that the University will recognize the impact that this is going to have on its employees’ well-being and that they can make these changes before the end of the spring semester, the school year,” Kerr said. 

Ski U Drop gave University of Minnesota students an opportunity Thursday to jump off the one-, five-, seven- and 10-meter platforms at the University’s Recreation and Wellness Center. 

The event is an opportunity for students to experience jumping off the dive platforms into the pool, something not generally open to the public or student body. 

Ski U Drop started in 2017 as an open dive, similar to the not-well-attended open swim but with a diving component, according to Joslyn Klitzkie, the Aquatic Center’s event program assistant and private lesson and community events program assistant at the Gopher Swim School. 

Klitzkie said this is the first time the event was held in the spring, as it is usually an event exclusive to the fall. 

“We normally do it during homecoming, but since we had such a big turnout we decided to do another one in the spring,” Klitzkie said. 

According to Klitzkie, her favorite part is watching people overcome their fear. 

“It’s really fun seeing the people that are scared to jump off the 10-meter and they do it at the end and they are so proud,” Klitzkie said. 

In previous years, participants paid a $5 entrance fee and got a t-shirt. Now, the event is free and t-shirts are awarded to those who jump off the 10-meter platform, according to Klitzkie. 

Bryna McElligott, the assistant director of aquatics, said when the event first started, around 50 people showed up. Around 200 people attended the event on Thursday. 

“People just get really jazzed to jump off the 10-meter,” McElligott said. 

With the increased attendance, McElligott said the biggest learning curve was figuring out how to staff the event so there were no long lines. Three to four lifeguards and three to four Gopher Swim School staff worked the event. 

“It’s cool because there’s a lot of kids that come in that don’t typically come into the pool area, so I think that’s a really awesome part of it,” McElligott said. “You’re getting more people in that normally wouldn’t come to lap swim or come to a swim meet.”

McElligott added that students were required to take a brief swim test, swimming 25 yards to prove they could swim to the wall after they jumped. 

Second-year students Nick Hinds and Stephen Schneider both jumped off the 10-meter platform and said that while it “hurt a little bit,” it was fun. 

“I can’t jump off the platform normally, so it’s the only place that I can do it,” Hinds said. 

Hinds said his favorite part was looking down and seeing the water, while Schneider said he enjoyed the adrenaline rush. 

MJ Florkey and Olivia Succio, both first-year students and members of the University synchronized swim team, also jumped off two different platforms. 

“We’re both synchronized and then we saw the thing and we’re like, we’ve always wanted to jump off the platform,” Florkey said. 

Florkey added she was a little nervous to jump off the platforms but encouraged participants to face their fears. 

The University of Minnesota College of Design has shifted its curriculum this year to provide apparel design students with more options than designing clothing lines. 

Without enough pieces to do a fashion show, which had been standard in past years, apparel design seniors have opted for other options, including research development or digital representation of designs for their senior thesis.

Elizabeth Bye, an apparel design professor, said the curriculum has shifted into two tracks: creative fashion design and one focused on technical design. She added that students can also do both, which was previously the standard for the program. 

Bye said that instead of requiring all students to do a senior line of clothing to present in a fashion show, seniors now do a thesis that is more focused on some sort of research. 

“The types of projects that the students can do for their senior thesis is much broader and meets the needs of the diversity of our students’ interests,” Bye said. 

Bye added there were very few students graduating this year who had enough pieces to do a line and put together a fashion show. 

According to Bye, students must spend countless hours and resources to put on a show for little in return, as a limited number of fashion industry people attend. However, a new student group, Apparel Design Collective, still provides opportunities for students who wish to participate in a fashion show.

Isabel Friedell, a fourth-year in apparel design, said not having a senior fashion show was because of a combination of funding, small class size and the number of students not having enough pieces. 

Instead, Friedell turned toward the Apparel Design Collective, which she said was originally a group for apparel design seniors to organize the fashion show. 

The group has now opened up for any student in apparel design and continues to be the only student group for the major. 

“It’s a really good way to connect with people outside of your year,” Friedell said. “I don’t think I really would’ve met anyone, I think I would’ve been stuck with the seniors.” 

The Collective officially started in early 2024 and now has around 30 active members, according to the group’s president and third-year student Mae Sann.

Sann said the Collective is a place for all apparel design and University students to enjoy apparel and show their passion for it outside of classes. 

“There is realism that when you’re in school, that’s all you’re designing for,” Sann said. “You don’t have time to do it outside of class, and so that’s exactly what this is supposed to be. There’s no real hard deadlines to anything, it’s all very come as you are and present what you want to, not what you’re expected to.” 

Currently, the Collective is working on organizing events and exhibitions, hoping to eventually have a fashion show for all students. The group is trying to get professionals from the Minnesota area to come and talk, Sann said. 

“We’re very much taught to make a garment that fits a dress form that you can pattern and you can mass produce, so we want to provide students an exterior option to learn something different,” Sann said. 

Bye said she is excited to see the Collective reform and create an opportunity for students to do fashion shows or other events. 

“I’m thrilled that if there is interest in doing a show, that the student group is the organization that is going to take that on,” Bye said.  

Svea Krisetya, a second-year student and the Collective’s fundraising coordinator, said watching the senior’s fashion show last year was inspirational. 

“We were kind of bummed it wasn’t happening again this year, but obviously, it’s the seniors’ choice and not everybody wants to do a show,” Krisetya said. 

According to Krisetya, students have started to realize how much work and money goes into a fashion show and how necessary it is to have a club and organization to pull off something like a show. 

“Just getting the roots in the ground to be able to have a stronger foundation is the main goal of the collective,” Krisetya said. 

A year after its formation, the University of Minnesota Graduate Labor Union (GLU) continues to work on tentative agreements with the University.

The union started bargaining with the University in September and said there has been little progress since.

GLU is a graduate worker-led organization working toward improving conditions for graduate student workers at the University, according to their website. 

David Munkvold is a graduate student on the bargaining committee for the union. He said the committee met every other week on Thursday and Friday with the University’s bargaining unit trying to reach an agreement on contracts. 

Munkvold said GLU had several “tentative agreements” where both sides agreed to the language of the employment contract.

“We’re still working on a number of articles,” Munkvold said. “There’s been a lot of pushback from the administration regarding a hostile work environment, nonsexual harassment as well as international student rights.” 

Munkvold said the University pushed back on some of GLU’s policies because they believed their current solutions were sufficient for the problems graduate workers encounter. 

According to a joint statement from the Office of the Provost, Office for Human Resources and the Dean’s Advisory Council, the University received GLU’s extensive economic proposal. 

“The University continues to actively participate in these important negotiations and looks forward to reaching an agreement with GLU,” the statement said. 

Through a spokesperson, Vice President for Human Resources Ken Horstman declined to be interviewed for this story. 

Despite not moving at the pace GLU wishes, Munkvold said they understand bargaining takes a long time as they only meet every other week and therefore they remain optimistic.

“A lot of our platform items are sticking by them,” Munkvold said. “We are doing a lot of organizing in addition to the bargaining sessions to get people engaged in the bargaining sessions content, and get people engaged with the process because our power at the bargaining table comes from our members organizing and coming together and demonstrating that they do want what we are providing for them.” 

Anya Auerbach, a GLU organizing member, said the union had been building on the democratic structures of the organization.

Auerbach said the union had several people not on the bargaining committee sit in person and on Zoom to watch the first bargaining session. She added how powerful this ended up being, as the University came back with nothing after three weeks.

“They hadn’t really even looked at our economic proposals yet, and we were frustrated,” Auerbach said. “We were upset that it made people feel like they were not taking us seriously, like they wanted to delay things as long as they could.” 

After that, Auerbach said people in GLU wanted to help make the University take the union seriously, so they emailed their deans. She added this seemed to work, as the University came back with a counter-proposal shortly after. 

A challenge Munkvold said the union is faced with is keeping people engaged. He said with the nature of graduate workers, people are coming and leaving every year. 

Auerbach said people have different issues, whether that be pay, bad relationships with advisers, anti-harassment, workplace safety and structural issues. 

“All of us have issues and it’s really asking people, talking to people, ‘What are your issues? What would you like to be better?’ and thinking how can we make that happen,” Auerbach said. 

Munkvold added the nature of graduate work is for people to keep problems to themselves, but it does not take much to realize others face similar issues. 

The first week of April was Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week but, according to Auerbach and Munkvold, graduate students did not feel appreciated. 

“I think a lot of us, especially the timing of that event, made a lot of people feel indignant,” Auerbach said. “You just ignored us at bargaining and didn’t even look at our proposals on these things that we need, like adequate pay to actually live in the place that we work. You know, just little issues like that, and then you’re like, ‘Here’s some donuts!’” 

Munkvold said the union appreciated some effort is being made to make graduate students feel like they are being acknowledged, but this does not make them feel as valued as they hope.

Despite not always feeling valued, Auerbach said the graduate workers do feel appreciated by the administrative people they work with. 

“That’s not the issue, right?” Auerbach said. “We work with good people in our immediate environment for the most part, but they’re also not the ones with power.” 

Munkvold said there are some legislative changes potentially happening at the state level that would allow more people working at the University who are not in the bargaining unit to organize. 

Auerbach said the legislation would also increase the number of undergraduate students eligible to unionize. 

According to Munkvold, if the University cares, they will work with GLU to get to an agreement soon, allowing people to get back to work two days every other week instead of bargaining. 

“I want to get back to doing work,” Munkvold said. “That’s what we all want.” 

The first-ever Goldy’s Prom danced its way into Goldy’s Gameroom at the University of Minnesota Friday evening. 

The prom transformed a game room into a dance floor, featuring a candlelit, decorated room with a DJ and food for the participants to promenade. 

Scout Albrecht, the senior student manager of Goldy’s Gameroom, said they decided to do Goldy’s Prom because they were looking for events the game room could put on. 

“We wanted to do something fun, so we put this together,” Albrecht said. “Mostly just looking for an event that was just like, not really having one thing, that you’re just kind of hanging out.” 

Albrecht said they planned the prom over a couple of months but added it ties in well with seniors graduating now as they are the class that did not have a high school prom due to the pandemic. 

According to Albrecht, the idea of having Goldy’s Prom was brought up in a meeting a while ago but whispers of doing a prom circulated before that. 

“Everyone who works here is excited about the event, like people volunteered to take this shift specifically so that they could be a part of it,” Albrecht said. “I think it’ll be really fun for everyone to bring something else to it.” 

Elizabeth Gust, a first-year student, said the event sounded fun and she encouraged her friend Lara Huns to join her in attending. 

“I like going to dances, so I made Lara come with me,” Gust said. “I hope they keep doing it.”

Huns, also a first-year student, said the setup was nice and she appreciated the aesthetic. She added she enjoyed the rock candies and snacks provided.

“Yeah it’s a good setup, the little candles are cute,” Huns said. 

Gust said Goldy’s Prom reminded her of her high school prom and thought it was authentic. 

While prom is uniquely an American thing, it is not everything the movies crack it up to be, Albrecht said. 

“Having just kind of this like random casual event kind of takes all the pressure off of it,” Albrecht said. “It’s not something that you have to spend money for, it’s not something that you have to like, really plan in advance. You just show up with your friends and you have a nice time.” 

Abi Martin, a student worker at Goldy’s Gameroom, attended the prom and said it was fun and had great snacks. 

Makenzi Jenneke and Mandy Wyllie, Martin’s friends, also attended the dance. 

“We just came with because we thought it would be fun,” Jenneke said.

Wyllie said they requested the song “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and it got people dancing. She added she and Jenneke tried to get the DJ to play “Chop Chop Slide” next, but the DJ refused. 

Katie Mitchell, a second-year student, said she attended the prom because her friend saw a flyer and thought it was cool. 

Mitchell said she wished the prom had more advertising but enjoyed hanging out with her friends. 

Albrecht said she does not know if the prom will continue in the future but sees it as a possibility if people enjoyed it. 

“I think people want an excuse to wear formal wear sometimes at a thing that’s not so formal,” Albrecht said. “If it goes well, if people are into it, I could see them doing it again.”