There is no doubt the change in time and location will make this year's Dance Marathon unlike any other. But will the switch from 48 hours to 46 really make much of a difference?

While the BJC will provide a bigger and more manageable venue for Thon, its drawbacks are now more apparent then ever with the recent decision to trim two hours off.

But in the long run, Thon isn't really losing anything but time with this change. Penn State, not Thon, will most likely suffer the most financially from the decision to move Thon to the BJC. We're already losing a weekend of home games by giving up the BJC. Thon's donations, on the other hand, will probably not be affected by the change. It's highly unlikely that people will contribute less to Thon because the event is two hours shorter.

Thon enthusiasts might still be up in arms over the slight alteration. While it's only two hours, Thon may argue that the event has lost part of its tradition in skimming off two hours, but ultimately, it won't make much of a difference because, well - it's only two hours.

In 1974, the second Dance Marathon was expanded to 48 hours, probably for the sake of calling attention to the cause. But now, 33 years later, Thon is a nationally recognized philanthropic event that hardly needs to take drastic measures to maintain interest. Sure there's that element of suffering for a cause, which is why the dancers dance in the first place. But in all honesty, those extra two hours aren't much when you add it all up.

This year's decision to cut down time is not a cop-out by any means. It was a purely logistical move made to ensure that the BJC will be up and running on time the next day. Despite the changes in time and place, Thon will still be the largest student-run dance marathon in the world and nothing can take that away. Our morale and our cause is still the same - and that's really all that matters. We will still be raising money to save lives. So it's really not a bad thing that our dancers will now be able to go to sleep two hours earlier than before.

The point is, after all, to raise money for cancer research. To be totally cliché, it's For the Kids

When you think about it, trimming a couple of hours off the Marathon won't do any harm.