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Tara Flanagan

The ‘Silent’ Silent Disco


Olivet College is known for holding many student activities, but what happens when no one shows?

On Jan. 10, Jason Meadows, associate dean of Student Engagement and two students from student activities, held a Silent Disco event, and no one came.

At a Silent Disco, music is piped through headphones. There is no sound in the room. The equipment costs more than $100, including transmitters everywhere. Both seniors and student workers Myra Jones and Nathan Samuel said, “I thought it would be a fun and a good experience.”

Jones said, “All headphones are connected by one system and have three different channels, and you can take your headphones off whenever you want to. For example, if you didn’t like the song you can just take your headphones off and stop listening.”

Samuel said, “I like the general idea of partying with no noise.”

Jones said students always complain about not having things to do at the school, but never come to events that Student Engagement provides. She said more students might have attended if the event was on a different date, “because everyone went home, and pledging was getting ready to start.” Samuel agreed with Jones.

Meadows said, “This event…has been on the college market for a few years. I wanted to see if it would work for the student population here at Olivet…. It is a party done in a new and personalized format.”

Meadows also said, “Reflecting on the event … I would have changed the date to the second weekend after pledging in February; maybe students need more time to hear about the event.”

Jones said, “I feel like more students would come after pledging, because they would want to show their letters off.”

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