Last Tuesday night’s ill fated Halloween celebration has been dubbed by some as the “Monte Splash” after irrigation sprinklers unexpectedly went off, dousing students and equipment and cutting the event short.
For many students, Monte Mash left plenty of unanswered questions: ‘What went wrong? Who’s to blame? What damage was done?’
Regarding the incident, the university issued a statement to the Lutrinae.
“Our Student Affairs team, including Residential Life Coordinators who responded during the incident to ensure students were safe and to offer alternative activities for them, has been working with the event organizers and staff to determine what happened in this situation,” said University spokesperson Walter Ryce.
“We are still looking into what happened around the work order requests for the Monte Mash event that led to a miscommunication about the irrigation schedule, and we are working with students to identify any equipment damage and costs from the incident.”
Ryce continued, “When a group submits an event logistics form for an event on campus, that is routed to multiple offices or organizations on campus and in some instances a work order is required to ensure that tasks are completed. We are still determining what happened in the case of Monte Mash and will determine if we need to change our process to prevent something like this in the future.”
For members of Otter Media, who organized the event, the incident was a serious disappointment after months of planning and preparation. “We’re just licking our wounds right now,” said fourth-year Derek Ramussen, Otter Media’s live events station manager.
While accountability for the irrigation accident remains unclear, a major concern for both Otter Media and the musicians scheduled to perform that night is the damage done to their equipment. After the sprinklers soaked thousands of dollars worth of audio and video equipment, compensation for the damage is being sought out.
“It was everything that we owned up on that stage,” said Micah Stamps, station manager of Otter Media. “We’re not quite in the position to do any numbers yet. We do know that there was definitely some stuff that was ruined.”
Despite such a disheartening turn of events on Halloween night, those involved in the planning of Monte Mash said they are not dissuaded from organizing future events.
Stamps stated that while Otter Media has faced a number of obstacles before in planning events, these setbacks “[are] never the end for anything that we do.” Rasmussen reiterates that “[Otter Media has] taken punches like this before.”
Organizers at Otter Media and musicians scheduled to perform at Halloween’s Monte Mash are actively seeking ways to plan a comparable event this semester.
Second-year Jilian Hintz, part of Otter Media’s live events department, emphasized the commitment to a comeback. “The students deserve it, the performers deserve it, our entire team deserves it.”
“We want a show this semester,” said Stamps. “We want everybody to pull up this time.”
