Hall of Shame:LAN

2000.1 -- "Stairway to Heaven" Cut Short Scandal

Another editor of this page, me, heard my hallmate from Lancaster '05, Henry, that "Stairway to Heaven" got cut off sometime in the past two or three years at Lancaster. Then everybody protested during "American Pie."

There have been rumors that a sit-down occured at the end of the dance. More rumors say that the sit-down actually worked and the RAs did play "Stairway to Heaven" due to the fact that nobody would leave the dance.

At LAN.00.1, Stairway was cancelled at TWO dances, once for "bad behavior" ie running too fast during End of the World, etc. and once because of time constraints. LAN.00.1 became notorious for the frequent cancellations of various canon songs.

Similarly, at Siena, several songs were cut short; an entire-site sit-down led to an extension of the dance and replaying of several songs. This, however, is in the Hall of Fame:LOU, because it happened only once, and the massive protest that it led to.

2004.1 -- Security Guard Incident

At Lancaster 2004 Session 1, a male Franklin and Marshall security guard handcuffed a male CTYer and gave the key to two female CTYers nearby, instructing them to "help him out" while he watched. The incident could have been just the joke of a bored campus staff worker, or it could have been a totally creepy sketchy act of pedophilia. Although it will never be known for sure, the RAs asked the girls for their side of the story and a hall meeting announcement was made for CTYers to "avoid talking to any Franklin and Marshall staff".

2006.1 -- Hand-holding Ban

At Lancaster Session 1 '06, there was a horrible new PDA rule instated where no one was allowed to hold hands. This was immediately followed by several other strict rules, such as no linking arms. Soon, you could get in trouble for just a hug. After a 42-person grass orgy occured, grass orgies were banned. Everyone was miserable. It escalated to the point where people were bursting into tears and going to the counselors to complain. Many people complained of feeling that they weren't allowed to be affectionate towards friends. Students were getting yelled at for minor transgressions such as hugging, touching each other's hair and, in one case, sitting too close. Through the efforts of Molly Brean, Aliza Alperin-Sheriff and Dana Reback, and after several parents complained, the administration saw the error of their ways and the new PDA rules were repealed. There was much rejoicing and blatant hand-holding all over the quad. Note: Don't forget the hand-condoms. Rubber gloves were handed out as a protest/joke. "Use protection when you hold hands!"

2006.1 -- Fourth Thomas Break-ins

Unusually for CTY, the residents of the Fourth Thomas (North Side) hall of Adam Roush were the victims of repeated acts of vandalism. Beginning at the end of the first week, one, then several cell phones disappeared, followed by a lime green ipod Mini. Then, starting on the second weekend, unlocked rooms were entered and detergent, and in one case, soda, was poured on the floors, shoes, and papers. It was during one of these visits that a lanyard was stolen; thankfully, this unfortunate student had a roommate who was able to let him into their room. Other "pranks" included a hard-boiled egg hidden in the bathroom radiator, and a student's deodorant being placed in the microwave for three minutes. This latter incident created a rather unpleasant odor.

After a few residents of the hall noticed that there was a cell phone in the air conditioner of one of the suites, a visit by a tool-armed site director led to the return of the mostly-functional (albeit waterlogged)cell phones and ipod. While the SRA's were touring the hall, one of the showers was obviously on. It was only after they left that it was realized (by Chris Geissler) that no one had come out. He waded into the nearly-overflowing showers, turned them off, and removed to cardboard box and pair of shorts (never claimed) which were blocking the drain. Finally, on the last day, a small quantity of detergent was found in one of the suites, and $170 belonging to one student was ripped into small, later reassembled, pieces. The culprit(s), to the best of this section's author's knowledge, was/were never found.

2006.2 -- Fatal Lanyard Swinging

At Lancaster 06.2 during Acting Improv during the game World's Worst (for World's Worst Raver) Marieke Williams entered the center of the circle, swinging her lanyard (jokingly), but hit herself on the forehead with her key, making her bleed. The irony of the situation was not lost on the crowd.

2006.2 -- String Raving Ban

In Lancaster 06.2, the night of Second Saturday, the story of the admistration banning string raving flew through campus.

The ban was a reaction to a serious glowstick injury earlier that day at the Skidmore CTY campus, hundreds of miles away. Around 11:00 Saturday morning, CTY Biology student Jennifer Sekula was watching "Supersize Me" while she and a friend Peter Yang were playing with green and yellow glowsticks. Rather unexpectedly, one of the glowsticks explodes, shooting glowing fluid into her unprotected eyes, face, mouth, and clothing. Because the contents of the glowstick were not known at the time, and since Jen was also wearing contact lenses, she was sent to the hospital for the remainder of the day for emergency treatment. Anxious about future incidents, a mandatory ban on all glowstick use was imposed by CTY administration.

Left shoe protests were planned for James Brown is Dead, because it was planned for playing that night. But then, Rachel (who along with Christ had talent show rehearsals) told Alexa to prepare a trip to the site director, and along with some other students, to ask why it was banned and see if they could work something out. Their reasoning was "because we dont allow lanyard swinging and that is much like it." They simply decided it "wasn't safe." (The site director creatively suggested that the glowsticks reminded her of nunchucks.) Rumors spread that the command had been handed down from Johns Hopkins (a JHU observer had noticed the string raving and had reported it as being "dangerous" to the top officials). They made a compromise, during the designated raving songs (James Brown is Dead, Everytime We Touch, Heaven, ect.), students would be allowed to rave on the hardtop; however, non-raving students could not set foot in the area. Stupidly enough, James Brown was played while it was still light out. At the next dance, a "raving section" was created for those who wanted to practice before the designated songs. Still, no circles were allowed. The site director mentioned that the new method of "controlling" string raving had been a success and that it will most likely continue. However, since the site director changes every year, no-one knows what will happen next year.

NOTE: Glowstringing has been banned in Skidmore since 04.1 when an RA was hit with a glowstick, although the Emperor of 06.2 glowstringed anyway during the talent show and the last dance along with Edison Huff.

2006.2 -- Losing the Duck

Before lunch of the day after the duck was passed down, Jeff Sachs seemed unable to find the duck in his classroom. He had seemingly lost a part of Lancaster tradition. Looking everywhere, he failed to find the duck (he even looked in the trash can!), and was chastised heavily. During the next class session, however, Jeff found the duck exactly 13 inches from where he was sitting in class, on the overhead projector cart. Jeff was forgiven, but ruthlessly mocked.