Matt Peters
map006@marietta.edu
On Monday, March 14, Marietta College students received an email announcement from Campus Involvement Coordinator Erin Riordan-Dye that Doo Dah Day, MC’s former annual end-of-year celebration that was known for being popular with students but also raised concerns for some as being an excuse to over-consume alcohol, “is officially scheduled to return to campus next year, April 2017.”
Prefacing this event, Riordan-Dye explained that the Doo Dah Day Committee will be hosting the “Doo Dah Day Launch Party” on April 15 of this year, following that day’s All Scholars Day happenings. The party will take place on the Harrison Lawn and parking lot, from 5:00-8:00 p.m. It will include carnival games and prizes, barbecue buffet food, snow cones and free hot air balloon rides.
In lieu of this announcement, many students are wondering why Doo Dah Day was not scheduled to take place this year. The over 40-year-old tradition has not occurred since 2013.
“We’re really disappointed that it couldn’t happen this year,” sophomore Matt Daugherty, member of the Doo Dah Day planning committee, said.
“It’s just the way things worked out, as far as planning dates goes, that sort of thing happens. We learned our lesson, and we’ll be definitely looking to plan earlier so it can happen next year,” he said.
Dr. Richard Danford, VP for student life, told The Marcolian that while President Bruno had requested him to look into bringing back the tradition last year, the planning for Doo Dah Day this year was delayed for a multitude of reasons.
“I was very eager to honor that request, but then there were important leadership transitions that took place within the Division of Student Life,” Danford said. “By the time new staff was settled in and planning began the rain locations we would need in the DBRC were already booked for the Saturdays in April that would have worked for Doo Dah Day. For that reason, we were forced to postpone the reinstatement of Doo Dah Day until April 2017.”
Daugherty added there are simply too many conflicting events taking place on campus this April for the college to be a feasible location.
“There’s too many scheduling conflicts at this moment for us to be able to plan a worthwhile Doo Dah Day this year,” Daugherty said.
Daugherty went on to emphasize the need for the event to be high in quality.
“We recognize that we could just kind-of throw something together as Doo Dah Day this year, but that’s really not fair. That’s doing a disservice to the campus,” he said.
“If we’re going to do Doo Dah Day, we’re going to do it right and we’re going to bring it back full force.”
