Sunday’s second annual ring ceremony left some members of Ed Board thirsting for more. Literally.
An otherwise smooth ceremony was marred by the lack of cups at the reception afterwards. We’ll get to that in a minute.
The event was created to link past alumni with future generations of alumni through the SMU ring. The ring features a Mustang on the inside of the ring that symbolizes that link.
Members of Ed Board who participated and/or attended the event found it a little unorganized in the beginning.
No procedure of how the ceremony transpired was given to the participants, and most were unsure where to sit in the beginning. Greeters offered no full explanation of the seating arrangements that left students unsure if they should sit with their families and guests or in a specially designated section. Turns out it was the latter.
Other than that, the ceremony went smoothly with poignant alumni-linking speeches given by university President R. Gerald Turner and the vice president of development.
Then students were called up, one-by-one to receive their rings. Well, almost. Some students received a box without a ring. Ed Board doesn’t like these kinds of surprises. Was there no way to notify the students who would not be receiving a ring in advance?
Regardless of these two hiccups in the ceremony, it was, overall, an enjoyable ceremony and one that needs to continue in the future. It can only improve. It was, after all, only the second one.
Where the ring ceremony tarnished was in the reception that followed. The entertainment was questionable at best. He was inaudible to say the least.
After a line of 40 to 50 people formed to feast on the brownies, cookies and punch trucked over from the Umphrey Lee Cafeteria (students can spend $600-$1,100 on their rings, but the all the university can offer in way of refreshments are from the school cafeteria), cups went the way of the dodo. Ed Board guesses it doesn’t matter since, by that point, the punch was almost extinct as well.
Either way, a line of roughly 30 people was left standing in line without cups and no notification if more were on the way. It turns out that cups did turn up (paper compared to the glass cups offered) 10 minutes later.
Ed Board would like to pose this question to the planners of the ring ceremony reception: How can you underestimate the size of the crowd at the reception when the event was RSVP? For the third ring ceremony, Ed Board suggests making sure refreshments and the utensils necessary to enjoy said refreshments are fully stocked. Otherwise, a sparkling ceremony will be overshadowed by the tarnished reception.
