The International Student Association (ISA) formal at the Hilton Garden Inn ended two hours earlier than expected on Friday, after paramedics arrived on scene.
One hundred fifteen friends and members attended ISA’s first formal. The aim of the ISA, a two-year-old organization, is “to promote interaction among students from different cultural and religious backgrounds.” The formal encouraged traditional clothing and raised money for building a community center in Chincha, Peru, a city destroyed by an earthquake two years ago.
“The beauty of ISA is that it gives people an opportunity to meet people with wide experiences around the world. It’s a unique paradigm to promote diversity,” said senior and social committee member Ankur Bhatia.
Outside the entrance to the dance floor, ISA displayed Brazillian good luck bracelets, Turkish evil eye necklaces, and traditional earrings from different countries. ISA members brought these goods from their home countries for fundraising.
The event culminated a postcard event, during which male and female guests were each given half a postcard. At 11 o’clock, the male and female attendees were supposed to find the person with the other half of the postcard and slow dance with him or her.
However, at 10:55 p.m., social chair and McCormick sophomore Sung Hwan Park announced that a man had passed out in the bathroom, the managers were mad, and the formal was over.
Paramedics were seen wheeling a person on a stretcher out of the men’s bathroom. McCormick freshmen Nicolás Grosso described him as looking “blond” and “like he had passed out.”
Former ISA president and Weinberg senior Alex Jeffers claimed that no one from the ISA board recognized the man. “He was from Wisconsin and not wearing formal clothes,” Jeffers said.
When asked why the event was shut down, a hotel staff member, who declined to give his name, said, “everyone was having too good of a time. It was a joint decision by the organization and the hotel to end the party.”
On Saturday, ISA issued a formal apology for the event, stating:
“We were forced to close down the formal after the Hilton’s manager-on-duty approached us with liability concerns caused by a combination of incidents, the most urgent of which involved Hilton staff finding an underage guest of the event sick in the bathroom. The manager had no choice but to call an ambulance and was not willing to risk personal responsibility for this violation of hotel policy. As a result, the Hilton left us with no choice than to end the event in face of the safety and liability concerns that had arisen.”
Weinberg senior Harrison Shih still had a good night, despite the early recession. “It was really fun. We’re just going to relocate elsewhere.”
Additional reporting done by Emily Chow.