Last weekend, Grinnell held the annual progressive party, 10/10, off-campus. A long-beloved College tradition, 10/10 was originally held on-campus, with students traveling from dorm to dorm to socialize throughout the day and night. However, changing alcohol policies in recent years have pushed festivities away from campus.
While this year was not the first time the event was held off-campus, organizers claimed it was more highly organized than in past years. Ranging from tabling to harm reduction training to notifying the Grinnell police department of the party, hosts and helpers participated in extensive planning and preparation to carry out a successful series of parties.
The Class of 2019 are the last students at the College to have experienced an on-campus 10/10, and therefore, they claim to understand how they event has evolved over the years. Cecilia Bergman ’19 said that the experience of an on-campus 10/10 and off-campus 10/10 are nothing alike.
“On campus it felt to me more like there was a community vibe,” said Bergman.
Despite the different type of atmosphere that comes with an off-campus event, several students still regarded this year’s 10/10 as a triumph. The Class of 2019 organized the party through a Facebook group that is made up of students living off-campus who would like to host parties. They used the chat to sign up for times to host during 10/10 and made a full schedule of parties. Days before the event, coordinators sent out the schedule that listed exactly who would be hosting at what time. Additionally, they provided detailed guidelines with the schedule with information regarding sexual consent, responsible drinking and respect towards the party hosts.
Further efforts to plan 10/10 included harm reduction training with Director of Wellness and Prevention Jen Jacobson and fundraising for hosts to put together packs of snacks and non-alcoholic drinks for their guests, colloquially called “rescue packs.”
As the last official hosts of the night, Addi Gould ’19 and his housemates took on the responsibility of closing out 10/10. Despite taking on the task of distributing the all-campus shot, they felt as though most their guests were behaving appropriately. All the drinks they provided had a low alcohol content, even if guests had potentially consumed alcohol earlier in the night.
“We didn’t have anyone who was troublesomely drunk, no one was throwing up in our house, which was nice,” Gould said.
In preparation for the party, Gould and his housemates moved the tables into one room and duct taped their refrigerator shut. The event also gave them an opportunity to utilize their new speaker with a microphone attachment.
“[It] proved really useful to address 200 people at once about how we’re going to distribute the campus shot,” Gould said.
Even though most guests behaved respectfully, Gould and his fellow hosts still expended a lot of energy in making sure the party ran smoothly.
“Pretty much the entire two hours I was running around inside and outside the house making sure people were not having open containers outside the front, making sure people weren’t going through our cabinets,” Gould said.
Gould committed to staying sober after around dinner time, so that he would be able to deal with any problems that occurred later in the night. This proved to be a wise choice, as around 10:45 p.m. a couple of police officers showed up at Gould’s house to remind them of the rules and ask everyone to go inside the house instead of crowding the yard.
Another house also had a visit from the police due to a student caught smoking in front of the house, which caused a few issues, but was eventually cleared up. While the presence of police officers concerned multiple students in the days following the parties, only minor problems seem to have arisen.
