Slope Day '04 plans will have more input from concerned students

Cornell's student Slope Day Programming Board has announced the schedule and program for Slope Day 2004, to be held May 7 on Libe Slope. This year, organizers say, there has been increased student involvement in the planning of the event to help ensure its success and safety and minimize past alcohol-related problems.

Slope Day is open to all members of the Cornell community with Cornell IDs at no charge. All guests must be accompanied by a Cornell student, staff or faculty member and must be 18 years of age or older, with a valid ID. Up to four guests per Cornell host will be allowed into Slope Day, with an admission charge of $15 per guest.

The gates for the fenced-in event will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Ho Plaza and the front entrance to the Cornell Store will be inaccessible throughout the day to pedestrians not attending the event.

Alcoholic beverages will be for sale at the event to people 21 years of age or older, with valid ID, but no alcoholic beverages or food will be allowed to be brought into the event. Cornell Dining will be selling a variety of grilled foods on the slope.

The featured music performers for Slope Day this year will be OAR and Kanye West, with special guests Matt Nathanson and Dilated Peoples. The music will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Slope Day is traditionally held on the last day of classes in the spring semester. This tradition traces its roots back to a spring parade held in March of 1901 and through the long history of spring celebrations at Cornell.

Slope Fest, a nonalcoholic carnival with food, giveaways, prizes and featuring a karaoke contest, also will be held May 7 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. inside the event area on the upper tier of the temporary parking lot on the slope near West Avenue. And the MGLC (Minority Greek Letter Council) Stroll Exhibition will be on Ho Plaza from 3 to 5 p.m.

Slope Day planning this year is being driven by a number of concerned students. In the wake of last year's changes, the Student Assembly took leadership of Slope Day and has helped a student-administration partnership on planning and organization. This partnership resulted in the creation of the Slope Day Programming Board. The board's members have pledged to promote a day that fosters a safe and healthy environment with multiple social and recreational options.

The Slope Day Programming Board and student SOS committee are seeking volunteers to help monitor activities on or near Libe Slope during Slope Day. This year 1,000 student, staff and faculty volunteers are being sought to assist in activities on the slope and aid participants by providing a positive presence at the event. Volunteers make a huge difference each year, organizers say. For more information about Slope Day, the events and on signing up as a volunteer, visit this Web site: http://www.slopeday.cornell.edu/.

"The students and staff members who handle the myriad logistics involved with this event are just incredible," said Catherine Holmes, associate dean of students, co-chair of the Slope Day Logistics Committee and adviser to SOS. "It's a major collaborative effort, and we're going ahead full force now with the event being less than three weeks away.

"The crucial piece that still needs to be put in place is having enough volunteers to make things run smoothly," Holmes added. "For example, we need about 70 staff and faculty members to run the ID check-in area, and we'd like eight to 10 people at each of the five gates at any given time during the event. Plus, we need people to help cover the slope proper, hand out water, have rovers inside and outside the event area and people to run the activities at Slope Fest, etc."

Holmes said she has seen a positive difference in the annual event recently. "The event has gotten to be much more fun to work on over the past few years," she said. "There's a sense among the logistics committee as well as the volunteers that we really are making a positive difference by being a part of Slope Day planning and implementation."

One concern organizers still have is about the amount of drinking, or "pregaming," by students that may occur before the event, which has contributed to problems in the past.

"Our main concern is what happens off the slope," said Steve Blake '05, president of the Slope Day Programming Board and co-chair of the Slope Day Logistics Committee.

For students who choose to drink, avoiding hard alcohol and setting a limit will reduce the likelihood of problems, said Timothy Marchell, director of alcohol policy initiatives, Gannett: University Health Services. "Almost all cases of alcohol poisoning on Slope Day involve students drinking hard alcohol before coming to the event," Marchell said.