During 2014 the administration moved the prom date from April 25 to March 28, and Southwest is the only school making this change.

For senior Wyatt Risovi-Hendrickson, Prom symbolizes “the end of a way of life” for seniors. Prom has traditionally marked the ending of students’ high school careers.

“For a senior, prom symbolizes that you’re about to go off to college, and you’re leaving all the fun times of high school behind,” Risovi-Hendrickson said.

Now it appears that the end will be coming a little earlier than last year. Prom originally was tentatively booked for April 25 at Camelot Ballroom. However, Principal Scott Roberts noticed that the Kansas State High School Activities Association State Music Festival was the same day, meaning that many senior and junior band members would have to choose between attending prom or the state competition that same weekend. Realizing the situation, Prom sponsor Kelley Alexander contacted Camelot to change the date.

The next task for the prom committee to tackle was planning the dance with a deadline a month closer than they anticipated. However, this wasn’t difficult for the prom committee.

“I don’t believe that the new deadline will be too much for the staff,” Alexander said. “With the early Snowball dance this year, it all kind of evens out.”

For each dance, National Art Honor Society is in charge of making the decorations. Even though it will have almost a month less to finish decorations, the club said that the earlier date won’t have a negative effect on the decoration making process, as the club still will have 56 days to prepare after the snowball dance decorations are finished.

While the new date isn’t an issue for those making the decorations, it hasn’t been well received by some students. For the non band-members who didn’t need the date to be changed, it can feel very rushed.

“I feel like it’s really close to Snowball,” senior Jenna Oettmeier said. “Prom is supposed to be an end of the year activity.”

Although some may students think that Prom is too early, there some advantages to an earlier date.

“The change isn’t all bad; in fact, it has some pretty good upsides to it that students should take advantage of,” Alexander said. “One being that no other prom will be happening on that day, so restaurants will be much easier to book.”

However, Risovi-Hendrickson said that the new date has taken away from what he thinks Prom symbolizes.

“[Prom] is basically a goodbye party to the seniors, and with prom being so far away from the end of the school year, it’s just different,” Risovi-Hendrickson said.

In the halls: What’s your opinion on the Prom date change?

“It seems very rushed to have two dances only two months apart.” – senior Ty Constant

“I feel like it would lack the excitement that Prom ususally has for the
senior class.” – senior Wyatt Risovi-Hendrickson

“I think it’s a good idea because it makes getting reservations for a restaurant a whole lot simpler.” – junior Brooke Pigneri

“It feels a bit rushed, so right after Snowball you will need to get everything ready for Prom.”  – junior Gabbi Miller