"Supply and Demand Bro"

***(This article is not meant to offend anybody who is/was a member of SAE, it is my first opinions article and thought it relevant to student life on campus. If you are still offended by the article, sue me.)***

You never know when article ideas will turn up, in the case of this weekend I was shocked with how bluntly one happily smacked me in the face before nagging me and encouraging me more and more as the night went on to write about it.

The Heaven and Hell dance at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds put on by the gentlemen of “Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity California Alpha–Alpha Chapter” as listed at www.saessu.com. It had been advertised and preached about for over two weeks. The night finally came with more then a few surprises for the average drunkard. My buddies and I arrived at the flagpole at 10:25 p.m. There was an enormous mass of people lining the entire sidewalk, such that I have never seen at this school before in my three years of attendance. This is despite the fact that buses had been making trips to the Fairgrounds since 9:30 p.m., so this enormous crowd of people was a bit of a surprise to say the least. Why the buses had not already taken these people to the dance is anybodies guess, but being as their were over 600 confirmed guests listed on the official Heaven and Hell Facebook group previous, SAE should have been a little more prepared... It seemed everybody and their mom turned out for this party and SAE had enough buses just for the moms.

While I am sitting their with my buddies in the misty rain 2 buses pull up only to have a riot of intoxicated college kids literally push themselves around the buses. I am not even complaining about this part, I thought it was funny to see everybody screaming and hollering to be let on only to have security running around with their heads cut off trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Although I somehow feel this is not exactly what SAE had planned for the night. Security, or the sever lack of, eventually decided that yelling at everybody to shut up and stand back was the best means of dealing with the rioting situation. Once the door to the third bus eventually did open, we had to wait about seven more minutes for everybody to be told over and over again to shut up, then we were slowly let on one by one. Interestingly, you had a better chance of being let on if you had your hands raised high in the air like you had a gun pointed at your face. After finally being let on the third bus that came by, I gained an immediate sense of freedom that I never felt before from simply getting onto a bus. After being pushed like a sardine into plenty of people I am now publicly intimate with, I guess anything would. I don't think I helped the situation by awkwardly shouting that I had a boner. The looks of horror I received from my fresh new sardine friends was priceless and my buddy keeled over laughing. (For the record I didn't).

We start to leave the riot behind only to realize that about 15 seats were left open. That was awesome because now somebody was sitting, their buzz wearing off, with the fanatic masses in the icy cold 2 ½ hours after the dance had started miles away. We arrive at the dance and get through security which had its own bundle of surprises as the security guard half jokingly told me the pat down was 'as good for him as it was for me'. I guess this is karma considering my boner announcement. I finally get to the ticket counter armed with the $10 I drove all the way to the bank solely to get. There I am told by the SAE bro' that a ticket is $15. I asked him what the hell is going on, because it said on Facebook they would be $10 at the door. I get my quote of the night with his eloquent response, “$15, supply and demand bro'”. Note there is no huge line outside waiting to get in, the huge line would be the rioting people waiting to get on the buses, the only line at the dance was a short single digit one to pass through security. I kinda look around to see where this great “demand” is only to look back at my new bro' friend to be met with a look of impatience. Luckily my friend had an extra $5 with which I could pay this “demand tax” I guess you could call it. Once in the dance I had a good time, the lighting was awesome and the people were pleasantly plastered doing their thing which I eagerly joined in on.

What the heck are you doing SAE? I thought you would have learned from the mistakes of two years ago with your horrendous Boxer and Bowtie situation that merited your fraternity being kicked off campus. For those who aren't aware; SAE oversold their $15 tickets to their Boxer and Bowtie dance. The result was people walking across campus in their boxers with valid prepaid tickets only to be turned away at the door. Two years later they show their learnings from this mistake by overcharging for tickets to a dance nobody got to until two hours after it started and not having enough buses for a dance everyone knew would be packed. I have nothing against SAE individuals, I as a consumer and college student think their events are a joke. If you think I am have bias or a grudge, you would be correct. The same way anybody would have a grudge towards anybody who ripped you off, I was pissed to pay their rate hike only after arriving on a bus reeking of vomit. The fact is that I would be writing this article regardless of the Greek letters involved. This type of stupid crap is unacceptable and I hope I get a buttload of letters sent to the Star saying how wrong I was because maybe that way SAE WILL actually learn from their mistakes. The overpriced ticket was not a mistake, that was just sheer arrogance. C'mon SAE it's stuff like this that only encourages people to buy into the rumors circulating about the campus regarding a said roofie incident.