Smiley 80s, the annual ‘80s-themed party thrown by ASPC’s Committee for Campus Life and Activities (CCLA), will return to Edmunds Ballroom this year, sell a smaller number of tickets, and have an increased security presence in an effort to reduce the chance of noise complaints or safety issues. The party, which is scheduled for Saturday, Mar. 1, from 9 p.m to 1 a.m, was shut down early last year due to noise complaints. Wristbands will not be issued, and all tickets will be checked with black lights.

Ticket sales opened Monday for Pomona seniors, Tuesday for all Pomona students, and Wednesday for all 5C students. A cover band, 80s Enough, will play for half of the party, and there will be a DJ for the other half.

Though Edmunds can hold 1,200 people, CCLA will only be selling 1,000 tickets. Langan said CCLA hopes that this will cut down on noise and prevent safety issues from overcrowding.

“We avoid the people crowding at the line,” he said.

CCLA will also not be giving out wristbands. Only students with tickets, which will be checked with black lights, will be able to enter. When students leave, their hands will be marked with a special stamp, which will also be checked with a black light for re-entrance.

“Ticket black lights, stamp black lights—no worries about people without tickets trying to sneak in,” Langan said. “It’s still going to be a lot of fun, but we’re not going to have crowd control issues.”

There will also be “way more Campus Security than normal” at the event to keep the crowds under control, said Caroline Rubin PO ‘12, CCLA Annual Events Chair and ASPC North Campus Representative.

According to Langan and Rubin, security has been reorganized to focus more on the entrances and exits to control crowd flow. Last fall, Pomona’s Harwood Halloween and Scripps’s Eurotrash parties had crowds that became too rowdy, and both were shut down early.

“We’ve made a plan to put [the Campus Safety officers] where they’re most effective—at the entry ways,” said Ellie Ash, Assistant Director of the Smith Campus Center and CCLA advisor. “Once people get in, they’re almost never a problem.”

The party was moved back to Edmunds this year after being held in the Rains Athletic Center last year. Edmunds has historically been the location of Smiley 80s, but last year CCLA tried moving the party to the larger space in Rains so that it could sell more tickets.

According to Frank Langan PO ‘11, ASPC Vice President of Campus Life and Activities, CCLA is moving the party back to Edmunds to cut down on noise.

“Edmunds is a more confined sound space,” he said. “We’ve never had a problem in Edmunds before.”

Ash said she hoped the smaller number of ticket sales would also help mitigate overcrowding issues.

“Once the tickets have been handed out, we say no more. People will find other things to do and won’t be disappointed,” she said.

Last year, Smiley 80s was shut down over an hour earlier than expected when the Claremont Police Department (CPD) received a noise complaint from a Claremont resident. According to Ash, event coordinators can be fined up to $1,000 if complainants file charges on a noise complaint, and the staff member at the event can be arrested if a noise complaint is filed and no reduction in noise is made.

Langan said he believes that the other parties that took place on the same night as Smiley 80s last year, including Harvey Mudd’s Two300 party, which was also shut down early due to a noise complaint, may have contributed to the overall noise problem. This year, Harvey Mudd will not hold the Two300 party on the same weekend as Smiley 80s.

“There’s some confusion about which party the noise complaint got called on, but this year there’s nothing competing,” Langan said.

“Last year there were a couple other parties going on campus. Given that it’s in the SCC and there’s not a lot going on, it will make it through the night,” Rubin added.

Concerns about safety at large 5C parties were raised last fall after altercations between students erupted at Harwood Halloween and Eurotrash. Campus Safety and CPD officers were called after the parties reached maximum capacity, and no additional students were allowed in. At the time, representatives for CCLA pointed to the “drunken mob mentality” as the cause of these problems. Eurotrash was shut down early when students waiting to get in started pushing against the fence surrounding the party.

“The problems are consistent across the 5Cs,” Ash said. “We all talk about having similar struggles with the large events. How do we have a large event go well where students are safe and can also have a good time?”

Ash said that the hype surrounding these parties compounds the overcrowding problems.

“There’s a lot of buzz, momentum, student excitement,” she said. “When we do things in large spaces like that, you just get so many students that come out for it. Groups that may throw a smaller party aren’t going to want to throw it that night to compete with the big party, so then there’s nothing else going on campus except for that one thing that night, and everybody goes.”

Langan said he believes that the measures taken for Smiley 80s should help avoid safety issues.

“It’s still going to be a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s still going to be one of the bigger parties all year. It’s going to be a really good party.”