It was one of our most anticipated and popular, indeed, one of our only, traditions that we have at our school: Midnight Breakfast. Until this year, on the last day of classes every semester, ASUPS would give out free breakfast food to students late at night while bands played, games were offered, and students celebrated the end of classes. As fun as it was, Midnight Breakfast was not without its issues, so this year the event has been canceled as ASUPS considers alternatives and improvements to Midnight Breakfast.
The problem with the original Midnight Breakfast was that students caused a lot of trouble. One of the worst things that happened was that a food fight broke out a few years ago. On top of everything else, attendance was a persistent problem, as students only stopped by for a short while and attendance fizzled out by the end of the night.
Last week I spoke with Marc Fagaragan, ASUPS Vice President, about the cancellation of Midnight Breakfast.
Fagaragan told me that the ASUPS executives collectively agreed that a reassessment of Midnight Breakfast was necessary to make sure that the past problems are avoided so that the school can provide a safe event for students. He made clear to me, though, that the cancellation is not permanent, and he doesn’t want anyone to think that ASUPS acted arbitrarily.
Fagaragan assured me that ASUPS is working on making changes to Midnight Breakfast and is planning on bringing it back in the coming years. For the time being, though, alternatives will be offered. On the last day of classes this semester, there will still be the usual “De-Stress Fest” with massages, games, and puppies for students to play with.
But there will also be a special event for the entire school that night, with a surprise guest. Although this special event itself is not meant to be a replacement for Midnight Breakfast, it still seems like it has the potential to match the excitement and good times of the event.
Regardless of whatever is planned to celebrate the last day of classes this semester, many people, including myself, were displeased with last semester’s event, Mistletoast. In years past, Mistletoast was a separate event from Midnight Breakfast, meant to celebrate the holidays, but last semester it felt as if it was trying to accomplish too many goals. Its greatest shortcoming was the lack of attendance. Midway through the event, before the last group of choir singers got onstage, the party was pretty much over.
We need Midnight Breakfast back because it can’t be replaced. It was so sorely missed last semester that a petition circulated on Facebook to bring it back. But more than having Midnight Breakfast itself back, we really need what it represents: school traditions. Our school only has a few notable traditions that everyone could agree on—Log Jam, Mistletoast, Pops on the Lawn (when the School of Music hosts an orchestra concert outside on the last day of classes of Spring semester), and Midnight Breakfast. That’s not very many to count on, but what’s more important than this is that most of them happen at the end of the semester. If you take away just one of these traditions, there’s hardly any left.
Fagaragan and I both mutually lamented the lack of traditions at our school. With the low level of cohesion in the student body frequently coming up in discussions on campus, including in The Trail, it seems obvious to me that getting rid of any of the few traditions we currently have will jeopardize the scant cohesion that remains within our community. This is not to say that school traditions, or Midnight Breakfast, are essential to bringing us all closer together, but they surely help.
I can’t imagine having a last day of classes without some sort of celebration. I miss the excitement of going to Midnight Breakfast, and even the hours-long stomachache I get afterwards from eating the food. Although I won’t have the chance to go to another Midnight Breakfast before I graduate, I want everyone here who isn’t graduating to experience the fun too.
We need the tradition that Midnight Breakfast represents to make our school great and bring students from diverse groups together. Let’s hope that whatever is planned for the last day of classes this semester can hold us over until Midnight Breakfast returns!