There are few rules at Taylor that exist outside of the Life Together Covenant (LTC). One of them, however, is to NOT get on campus roofs.
But, on May 8, from 7:30–10 p.m., this year’s graduating class lined the entrance to Euler Science Complex, and Ritz on the Roof officially began. The event is limited to only seniors, but it opens up the rooftop of Euler to allow students a full view of campus before their time at Taylor ends.
“It is such a special senior event,” Diana Verhagen, hall director for on-campus apartments, said. “Everyone's so busy, and it was really important to give seniors a time when it's just their class celebrating … the last four years they spent growing and getting to know one another.”
There is much more to the event than just a photo-op, however.
Refreshments and a line of 12 raffle items filled the first floor of the complex, while music and dancing from the second floor echoed up through the third stairwell. Laughter spilled through the halls. Students were more concerned with their last conversation with a friend than holding balanced brownies.
Purple “Taylor University Alumni” shirts littered many of the tables throughout the building, all waiting to be reclaimed at the end of the night.
Ritz on the Roof serves a dual purpose for the Alumni Office. Primarily, it is one final opportunity to allow students to connect in the present moment, Sarah Sparks, director of alumni relations, said.
Yet, looking forward, she also noted that her team uses Rtiz’s registration to develop a network of alumni, so each class can stay in touch with both each other and with Taylor as a whole moving forward.
“We … get lots of call-ins, usually older generations, asking for old roommates’ contact information, or an old friend’s phone number and that kind of thing,” Sparks said. “It's really a way for the alumni office to connect to these graduating seniors that are alumni and wanting them to know that we're here.”
The Alumni office also uses students’ contacts to make them aware of regional events they organize six times each year. These events allow former students to network with one another and reconnect, as well as to stay up-to-date with the Taylor community even after graduation.
The office can only work with what information they are given, however. And with limited experiences shared by seniors already out the door and only vague Airband commercials advertising the event, that information can be incredibly limited.
“Why would you want to eat crackers on a roof?” Kaitlyn Black, a third-year graduating senior and student worker in the Alumni office, remembered asking last year.
Prior to working on Ritz on the Roof, Black assumed the “Ritz” on the roof was literal, since that was the focus of that year’s Airband commercial. Now, the psychology major knows better. But the misconception is not a difficult one to forge, with Verhagen expressing hope that future advertising will explain what the event is really meant to be.
Even so, the show of seniors at this year’s event made Euler feel full, and the double-meaning of the event’s name led seniors Valencia Placencia and Hannah Franklin to share a memory of their own as they held up a box of Ritz on the roof.
“I feel like you really feel that, when you're there, there's a deep sense of joy and excitement,” Verhagen said. “People are taking photos together, (posing) in some of the last photos, they're dancing together, they're sharing memories. So it is a very high energy (event), lots of excitement, lots of joy.”
It is a joy that defies the traditional rule about campus rooftops. But as this year’s group of seniors embark on their next phase of life, it is just one reminder of the freedom and height waiting in the wings.
