University | 6:52 pm | October 5, 2012 | By Jack Newsham

Makeshift tombstone marks end of Safety Dance

A makeshift tombstone was enacted on Friday on Cross Campus, memorializing the end of the popular 1980s-themed Safety Dance that administrators cancelled earlier this week.
A makeshift tombstone was enacted on Friday on Cross Campus, memorializing the end of the popular 1980s-themed Safety Dance that administrators cancelled earlier this week. Photo by Danny Serna.

If you’re mourning the end of Safety Dance, you’re not alone.

Students enacted an impromptu cardboard tombstone on Cross Campus on Friday, memorializing the 1980s-themed dance that was canceled earlier this week.

The gray-painted tombstone read “Safety Dance, R.I.P., 1980s – 2012: Never gonna give you up,” signaling an apparent homage to the well-known 1987 single of the same name by musician Rick Astley. Neon-colored clothing — popular outfits for Safety Dance — and two grieving roses were also piled around the base of the memorial.

Administrators announced that Safety Dance would be cancelled earlier this week after eight students were sent to the hospital for drinking-related incidents on the night of the dance.

Safety Dance has been held annually in the Commons dining hall since 1990.

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