For the weeks leading up to the Boulevard on Friday, students had been buzzing about the “new rules.” But what are these new rules exactly? Rumors swirled about clear bags, cops, no cups and security. Nobody was quite sure where the new rules were posted, or even if they had been. Ask anybody and they shrug their shoulders and say, “Maybe it was in an email?”

Walking onto the Boulevard didn’t make me feel better. Every time I turned around I felt like there was a cop looking over my shoulder and I was lost in the mayhem of the crowd. But more then anything, I was confused about where to go and where to find my friends.

I am a member of a Panhellenic sorority and so are most of my friends. Everyone I have talked to says that their main complaint was that they were unable to find their friends and meet up with them the way that they used to.

In the previous years, sororities and fraternities would pair up for the Boulevard. This gave the chapters a way to mingle and build new friendships. That tradition has been done away with and now only fraternities can have tents. This is supposed to encourage more intermingling among all students.

There was also supposed to be a Panhellenic tent, where women of all the Panhellenic sororities could go. Most people could not even find the Panhellenic tent, either due to the location of the tent or how crowded the Boulevard was. I intended to go, mainly because I knew they would have Chick-fil-A, but couldn’t see anything through the masses of unorganized people.

If upperclassmen are confused, I can’t imagine how freshman feel. Dallas Hall lawn looked like a mob scene. Trying to find your first week friends from your residence halls sounds like it would be almost impossible.

At previous Boulevards I was able to bump into tons of friends and acquaintances because I knew where to find them. The changes to the Boulevard made it hard to find anyone because I didn’t know where they would be. Without a tent, it felt like sorority women had no home base.

Walking up to the stadium for the game I was engulfed in a sea of green and gold. Thank god it was a white out so I could follow the little crowd of loyal Mustangs as they attempted to go to the game. But where was the student gate? I couldn’t understand why crowds of SMU fans were walking away from Ford Stadium; until I realized that they couldn’t find the one student gate on the very edge of the stadium. Maybe there was another email about that change too. I must have deleted it along with all the other SMU students who gave up and headed to Barley House.

After getting into the stadium, which only took pushing past the mob of lanyard wielding freshman, I was shocked to see no clear bags. Where were all the clear bags? All week we had been hearing people complain about these notorious clear bags. Girls were upset that their Louis Vuitton’s were going to be replaced and people were in an uproar about how absurd it was that the rule had been put into place. I went to the game and I saw less than a handful of clear bags. The one rule that was publicized and made waves across campus affected almost no one.

After watching our Mustangs fall to the Baylor Bears, then listening to the Baylor band play over ours during the singing of The Varsity, I left feeling glum. I was disappointed for our Mustangs and sad about the struggle on the Boulevard. More than anything, I just walked away from my experience on Friday confused.