United for Uganda's lock-in organizers intended an evening of good old-fashioned fun and fund-raising, but what they got was controversy over the inclusion of the subfreshman class

By Dana Al-Qadi & Shivani Khanna
Gargoyle senior editor & assistant editor
Posted Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007, The OG, news

TWO MONTHS AGO, the student organization United for Uganda held a junior/senior lock-in at Uni High as a fund-raising event, and the result was a successful and fun night.

Due to the immense popularity of this lock-in, UFU decided to repeat the event for underclassmen.

The latest lock-in will begin at 9 tonight and will last until 8 Sunday morning. Tickets cost $20, the same fee charged for the junior/senior event held Nov. 11-12.

All of the profit will go to the Uganda Children of War Rehabilitation Project, which supports a rehabilitation center in Gulu, Uganda, for former child soldiers who had been abducted and forced to fight in that country's 18-year-long civil war.

But preparations for this weekend's event didn't go as smoothly as organizers had hoped.

Locked out … and fighting back

UFU initially planned on holding a lock-in just for the freshmen and sophomores soon after winter break and a separate lock-in for the subfreshmen later on. However, due to scheduling conflicts and financial concerns, event organizers decided to forgo the subfreshman lock-in.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the subbies didn't let the matter go without challenging the decision.

Class officers Will Fernandez, Jenny Cooke, and Simone Ballard decided to take the initiative and approached Director/Principal Kassie Patton with a petition signed by the majority of their classmates.

The petition protested their exclusion from a school event, claiming that the Uni Student Handbook prohibited age discrimination and asked that they be allowed to participate in the lock-in.

“It was a very well-presented argument, and I could not argue with the logic,” said Patton. “The subfreshmen proved their maturity in presenting the whole idea in the way that they did, and they earned the right to participate in the activity.”

Virtually the entire subbie class — all but four of the 63 members — signed the petition, initially causing UFU lock-in organizer Amanda Grill to panic.

But UFU made the necessary accommodations to provide for the subbies, and Grill was optimistic that by adding another class, the club would also raise more money for its cause.

“I was worried about finding chaperones for this second lock-in,” Grill said, “but it was nice because the freshman and sophomore parents were so good about helping, and a lot more faculty also volunteered.”

Things fall apart, sort of

However, when members of the freshman class heard that subbies were being allowed to attend the all-night event, they decided they would no longer go to the lock-in.

“The irony that I pointed out to the freshmen was that it is interesting that people who are so compassionate about people in another country can turn around and say they don't want to spend a few hours with subbies,” Patton commented. “This is an event about compassion, so let's start by showing some compassion towards fellow schoolmates.”

Some members of the sophomore class also refused to attend the lock-in because of the subbies, but the majority of them were still planning to go.

“There are those who explicitly said that they weren't coming because of the subbies,” said Grill earlier this week. “The subbies are not going to ruin your experience, and if [underclassmen are] going to be petty enough to not come because subbies are going to be ‘in the way,' then that is sad. It's about class bonding.”

What many freshmen and sophomores did not know when they changed their minds about the lock-in was that the majority of subbies who signed the petition never planned to go, either. Reasons for subbies not attending ranged from issues with parental permission to simply not wanting to come in the first place but just wanting to feel included.

“We all signed it because we thought we deserved a chance,” said subbie Erick Dietz.

A disappointing showing, then a last-minute upsurge

As a result of the controversy, things didn't look good for the fund-raiser. As the week began, UFU had received only a fraction of the money from members of the freshman and sophomore classes who originally planned to attend the event, and only about 12 subfreshmen were definitely going to attend.

By Wednesday, UFU had taken in approximately $500 from the three classes as compared to the $1,050 the club raised (after expenses) from the junior/senior lock-in.

“It's sad to me that we have three classes and have made half as much as two classes were able to make last time,” Grill said at the time. “The event will still be fun, but it takes a lot of work and so much planning. It would have been nice to make more.”

But then something happened.

Many students who weren't going to the lock-in changed their minds as the weekend approached.

More than 80 people — at least 25 from each of the three classes — will attend after all, generating about $1,600 (before expenses). The first lock-in attracted almost 70 people from two classes.

“All day Thursday, a lot more people signed up,” said UFU organizer Bianca Zaharescu. “As of Friday morning, we had 81 people signed up and paid to go. Also, this time we won't have to spend as much on food, because we already have pancake mix and syrup left over from the first one. So hopefully we should be able to actually donate at least $1,500 from the total money we make, which is really awesome!”

A success after all

So what caused the change?

Grill believes that many freshmen and sophomores initially assumed their classmates weren't going to the lock-in after the subbies were permitted to attend, which in turn triggered their own decision not to go.

“What I think happened was probably that everyone was like, ‘Oh, no, no one else is going to go now, so I won't go either,'” she said. “But then when people started to
realize that some of their friends were still going, then everyone was like, ‘OK, well, nothing's really changed.'”

For UFU, the bottom line is that despite the ups and downs of the preparation process, a successful fund-rasing event is on the verge of happening.

“I think it's really great that people still decided to come even after the change of plans,” Grill said. “It'll be fun.”

UPDATE

As of 1:30 this afternoon, here are the figures for the lock-in:

• Eighty-five students (not including UFU members) have signed up to attend.
• Five to seven UFU members will be there.
• Seven to eight chaperones will be present at any one time.

RELATED

— Invisible Children site: Movie, Movement, Mission

— Washington Post: In Uganda, a Fresh Start For Former Child Fighters

— Gargoyle news: Locked up in Uni … for a good cause

— Gargoyle features: First person: Lock-in madness

— Gargoyle photos: Raising money, having fun at United for Uganda lock-in

— Gargoyle news: Hey guys, do you have what it takes to be Mr. Uni?

— Gargoyle news: Freshmen, sophomores to have a lock-in of their own