Clown costumes highly discouraged at Howl, USUSA says

Clowns seem to be everywhere lately: on the news, in movies and even on campus — but you probably won’t see one at Saturday’s Howl.

The Utah State University Student Association recently published a press release stating, “Due to the current climate towards clowns, we highly discourage dressing as a clown; this is for your safety inside and outside of the event. If you come dressed as a clown, you may be refused admission.”

While heavy face paint and props have always been discouraged at USU’s biggest party of the year, dressing as a clown has never been a ticket to admission refusal. In fact, USU has used “creepy clowns” as a past theme for the Howl.

Spencer Bitner, the Taggart Student Center associate director and student events adviser, said USUSA is mostly concerned about students’ safety.

There have been accounts around the nation of students creating mobs to try to hunt down — and possibly hurt — people dressed as clowns on campus.

“We are discouraging clown costumes for the students’ safety,” Bitner said. “We’re worried that someone could take offense to someone people dressed like a clown and try to hurt them.”

The rule against clowns was created in early October, when clowns were popping up all over the nation, and some were causing harm and distress to citizens.

“We feel like the clown hype has kind of died down recently,” Bitner said. “Originally our administrators were concerned about students’ safety. We were concerned about a student dressing like a clown, acting creepy and getting hurt.”

Because the Howl attracts thousands of people, certain precautions are taken to ensure participants’ safety. These precautions include banning props of any sort, masks, and heavy face paint which can cover someone’s identity.

“Our biggest concern is identifying people if they do cause problems. If someone has face paint on, it’s harder to take face paint off than to take a mask off,” Bitner said.

Crimes happen every year at the Howl, and a precaution is taken to ensure these crimes are handled properly.

“We can’t let someone come in and potentially do something nefarious and not be able to identify them,” Bitner said.

Although the Howl is an event in honor of Halloween and it has a scary aspect to it, Bitner said it is intended to be fun and safe for all attendees.

“We want people to come and have fun in the context of The Howl, but we also want them to know if they come dressed in any way that is offensive or obscene, they may not be let in,” he said.

The Howl sold out at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

— aligirl123@gmail.com