OPINION: Same Howl, more room to breathe

In our minds, there aren’t many redeeming qualities about the Howl. We’ve never been impressed by girls who dress in lingerie and guys who use Halloween as an excuse to wear their nude-colored briefs in public.

Annually, the TSC transforms from academic institution into a quagmire of body odor, grinding and freshman girls’ high-pitched squeals. There are usually so many people who attend the event it takes one hour just to get inside, and then once you are inside, it takes another hour to travel from one end of the hall to the other.

Although many seniors share a feeling of ambivalence toward this, our last Howl experiences, some of us decided to create spooky ensembles anyway and brave the halls for the last time.

Let us start of by saying it took approximately five minutes to get inside, another five to get our wrist bands fastened and off we went. For those who may have waited longer, it seemed they hardly noticed, because men breathing fire stood between the two lines. Yes, everyone, there were two lines. We aren’t sure why this brainy trick was not implemented before.

ASUSU Executive Council members handed out petitions, which students were urged to complete, petitioning higher education budget cuts in this year’s legislative session. In exchange for filling out a petition, each individual received a can of soda.

Brilliant. It’s safe to guess thousands of those surveys were completed. Who doesn’t want a caffeine- or sugar-laced can of pop to begin a long night of jumping up and down?

We ventured upstairs waiting for the heat plague, but didn’t find it. Instead, we reached the top of the stairs as a man on stilts with face paint and a top hat sauntered past. A woman with a boa constrictor wrapped around her waist, neck and arm stood in the middle of the hall.

Breakdancers performed a few feet from her, and we could see all of these things while standing in one place. To our amazement, we could breathe and move. There were pockets of empty space all over the place. Perhaps, the Howl wasn’t so popular this year? Wrong. Apparently the Fieldhouse was the place to be.

This is where the biggest annoyance came. People were moving from the TSC to the Fieldhouse like mules. We stood in a small hallway for 10 minutes trying to get there, before a few event facilitators jammed their way into the crowd and began directing traffic.

The dance party in the Fieldhouse was complete with acrobats and colorful, billowy pieces of material that resembled a circus tent.

DJ Marcus Wing — whom we’ve heard spin one too many times — blared his typical beats, but once again we could move, and because the doors were left open, the air was breathable and cool. The Cartel concert was equally comfortable, and spectators could leave the TSC feeling as comfortable as they did entering.

The Howl is not our style, but this year, we can truthfully say it was a major logistical improvement. We found ourselves able to enjoy the entertainment, without the lingering anxiety of suffocation and finding our way through a thick of sweating bodies and accompanying vapor cloud.