In light of the recent changes made to this year’s Prom, I decided to talk to a couple of seniors to see how they felt. For those of you who don’t know, this year’s Prom has been moved to Fri., April 27, due to the NATO Summit that will be taking place downtown on the previously scheduled date, Sat., May 19. (The G8 Summit, previously scheduled for that same week, has been moved to Camp David. Despite that change of venue, massive protests and traffic jams are still expected in Chicago.)

Senior Maytal Maor feels that these changes were out of the school’s control therefore students should be thankful to have a prom at all. “While it is annoying that Prom is about three weeks earlier, think about it this way: would you rather have Prom the same weekend it was originally planned, in the suburbs, with no after-Prom?” she says. “Or would you rather move it earlier so we can still have Prom downtown and keep post-Prom on the boat? I vote earlier. It is not the school’s fault. They tried to keep it in May, but the hotel was already booked. You can’t change the hotel once you’ve put a very pricey deposit on it. We should be glad that Prom wasn’t cancelled altogether!”

Personally, I agree. I would rather have an earlier Prom in downtown Chicago. The night just wouldn’t have the same feel to it if it was in the suburbs and there was no post-Prom.

Senior Victoria Luc disagrees with Maor’s and my feelings saying, “The date is too early. I feel like everything will be rushed. It could be problematic for people trying to save up for their Prom dresses and tickets. Also, attending school and having Prom on the same day [leaves] little time to get ready. I know that I’m going to have a hard time figuring out who is going to be in each group, and it can put a lot of stress on people, especially with school work.”

I also found that some students, mostly male, really don’t seem to care about the changes that were made. “It doesn’t make that much of a difference to me,” senior Richard Gomez says. “It’s not like I need a lot of time to get ready or anything. [The change in date] might be annoying for some people in sports though.”

Regardless of students’ opinions, there is nothing we can do about the changes now. We should appreciate that our school organizes a Prom as nice as ours and celebrate the end of the year together.