More than 800 Boston University seniors partied the night away at La Boom on Boylston Street Thursday during the 100 days to graduation countdown party, but some said they were served nothing but a cold shoulder at the 21-plus event.
The event, organized by the Senior Week Committee and the Student Activities Office, filled to capacity within the first hour, according to eyewitnesses. A Jan. 30 email invited seniors to attend but did not mention that space was limited.
SAO Senior Coordinator of Programs Mindy Stroh said the event’s organizers knew that the senior class has more than 4,000 students and that La Boom’s owners had set the club’s capacity at between 800 and 1,000. The event has always filled to capacity in the past, she said.
“Students have gotten turned away in years past,” she said.
The event was held at The Kells bar until two years ago, when organizers moved it to La Boom because it could hold more students, Stroh said.
Stroh attributed the annual problem to large senior classes and students bringing dates from other schools.
“I know they were frustrated because people were coming in and telling me, but there is nothing you can do,” she said. “That’s generally been the problem with senior week. As classes keep getting bigger, it’s harder to find venues that accommodate everyone.”
School of Management senior Jason Eaves said he arrived around 11:30 p.m. to find the doormen turning away a crowd of about 60 to 70 people.
“Everyone was pretty upset,” he said. “I guess everyone understood, but a lot of people were pissed they didn’t get a bigger place.”
But Eaves said the blame should not be placed on the event’s organizers.
“Any time you go out to a bar, you know that if you get there late you won’t get in,” he said. “I should have gotten there earlier. I was pretty pissed, but I was more pissed at myself.”
School of Management senior Colleen Murphy said she arrived around 11 p.m. to see a crowd of about 75 mostly BU students gathered outside La Boom. The doorman was telling people there was no reason to wait around because they were not letting anyone else in, she said.
“Everyone knows that there is a capacity for a club,” she said. “We knew we couldn’t show up at midnight and expect to get in, but we thought that going at 10:30 or 11, we’d be sure to get in.”
Murphy said many students were frustrated.
“If SAO is going to rent a club, they should have been able to accommodate everyone,” she said. “I think ‘maybe they should have picked a bigger club’ was the general consensus.”
Eaves said many seniors did not let a doorman stand in the way of their fun. He said 25 to 30 seniors moved to Pravda, a nearby bar owned by the same company as La Boom, after finding out there was no cover charge.
Murphy said she also went to Pravda and had a good time.
“That became the new celebration spot,” Murphy said. “We packed the place. They only had two bartenders on duty, so it took 45 minutes to get a drink, but they really did a good job at accommodating all of us. The night definitely worked out, but at the same time it was still like everyone had kind of a bad vibe.”
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