The annual Frances Willard party, a 35-year-old tradition, will not be held this year following a fire inspection last week that found Willard Residential College unfit to host the event.
Kevin Kearney, a Communication sophomore and the president of Willard, informed residents by e-mail Sunday night of the party’s cancellation.
“It is with profound regret that I bring you the following news,” Kearney’s e-mail began. “There will be no Frances Willard Party.”
Evanston Fire Department’s fire inspection Thursday found the building unsuitable as “a party facility,” said Alan Berkowsky, fire marshal.
Because the first-floor common room — which normally houses a dance party — only has one exit, a maximum of 49 people can occupy the room at one time.
“When we’re looking at the construction of the building for specific uses, certain criteria need to be met,” Berkowsky said. “In the event of an emergency, we need to be able to get people out of the building safely.”
The event, which featured elaborate hallway decorating contests, celebrated the birthday of Frances Willard, Northwestern’s first Dean of Women and a prohibition advocate with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Hallway decorations violate the fire code, Berkowsky said. The decorations, usually flammable materials, could block the way for residents trying to exit the building.
“You’re contaminating the means of egress for the occupants of that building,” he said.
The Evanston fire and police departments have been aware of the party every year, Kearney said. Previous fire inspections limited the building’s occupancy to 1,000 people, he said, but no specifics for particular rooms had been established in the past.
The party’s date was tentatively set for Oct. 18, said Kearney, who called the celebration’s cancellation “absurd.”
“These rules have always been around — they’ve just never been enforced,” Kearney said. “It seems that they only chose to get these rules enforced when they had an agenda to get done, which was to shut down the party.”
Nancy Anderson, coordinator of NU’s Office of Residential Colleges, did not return repeated calls for comment Monday. Virginia Koch, assistant director of University Residential Life, also was unavailable for comment.
McCormick sophomore and Willard resident Vanessa Fajardo described residents’ sentiment as “rebellious” and said students were considering throwing their own parties without dorm government or university approval.
Weinberg sophomore Jason Hawbecker lamented the loss of a campus tradition.
“(The party) is why some freshmen come to this dorm,” Hawbecker said. “This is why sophomores stay. Besides Dillo Day, this is one of the biggest things on campus. I know people who are having friends fly in.”
Hawbecker also questioned the timing of the inspection.
“We just made a $3 million renovation to the building, and we couldn’t think of this before we made this renovation?” he said.
Willard master and biological sciences lecturer Gary Galbreath saw no way for the party to go on, calling the decision “etched in stone.”
The implications of the fire inspection reach beyond the cancellation of a traditional festivity.
With the occupancy of the common room capped at 49 people, Willard residents are left without a room to safely hold all-building meetings.
“I commonly speak to multiples of (49 people) just when I speak to parents in that room during New Student Week,” Galbreath said.
Last year dorm government strictly enforced a 736-person guest list for the party, which Kearney said has been “tamed significantly” in the past three years.
But it wouldn’t be the same to try moving the celebration elsewhere, Kearney said.
“It’s so essential that it’s within the dorm,” Kearney said. “It’s about Willard and its residents and the spirit of the building. To remove it would be a bastardized version of a dance party.”
