The facts: After 125 years, the University decided to throw a party honoring its longevity. The party, held at 1:30 p.m., featured cameo appearances from the men’s basketball team, the chancellor and Tom O’Brien.
Our opinion: For our 125th birthday, we hoped to do a bit better. There was so much potential in the celebration; however, it came off as tame and disjointed. The timing of the event along with some of the events hosted held back the celebration’s incredible possibilities.
On Monday, N.C. State threw itself a 125th birthday party a month overdue. At 1:30 p.m., everyone who was anyone was in attendance: our chancellor, soon-to-be former and soon-to-be future student body presidents, the deans of our major colleges, T.O.B. and our men’s basketball team. However, one crucial element was missing from the bash-an actual party. Who starts a party at 1:30 p.m.? On Monday, this is a time when 9,974 students are in class and cannot attend. In response to this, Provost Warwick Arden gave professors the ability to excuse students from class for the celebration; however, this is a power all professors have held since their first day of teaching. In terms of timing, a step in the right direction would have been to either excuse students universally from their classes, taking it out of the hands of professors, or to change the time of the event to make it more accessible to students. We’re not calling for some all-night bash over the weekend, but something outside the heart of our schedules would’ve been nice. The lack of activities at the celebration was another huge issue. There wasn’t much to do during the hour-and-a half celebration. Beyond taking pictures with some cardboard cutouts of football players and cheerleaders, all you could do was watch what was unfolding on the stage–a stage that played host to an array of haphazard events. The emcee, Kornelius Bascombe, was great, but he didn’t have much to work with. The onstage events began with a dance-off, which was only saved through the stylings of the middle-aged. The dance-off was followed by an awards presentation in which the winner chose $500 over front-row, 50-yard line season tickets for football. The events were capped off in part through the basketball team’s appearance on stage. Fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance, the crowd became electric. Chants of “one more year” rang throughout Reynolds, pleading for C.J. Leslie to stay. However, his electricity was culled by his reluctance to take a stance. There was potential at the event. Chancellor Randy Woodson’s dueling banjos were incredible to see and the cupcakes looked truly amazing, even if we had wait an hour before they could even be approached. If it were any other event we’d have no problems with it; however, we’re turning 125 and with that we’d like to believe we’d pull out all the stops.