The Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon announced on Sunday that due to a discrepancy between the THON 2013 Rulebook and the dancer packet, THON will have 710 dancers instead of the usual 708.
Media Relations Captain Megan Renaut said this discrepancy did not affect the independent dancer lottery system because it is run independently from the organization dancer selections.
While the agreement made between THON and the Bryce Jordan Center is to only allow 708 dancers, overall committee members have taken the necessary precautions and spoke with Penn State Environmental Health and Safety to make sure that everyone remains safe during THON weekend, Renaut (sophomore-psychology) said.
Cat Powers, overall public relations chairperson, said the issue arose after some confusion over the wording of the rules.
“Due to the wording in the packet not being 100 percent clear, we wanted to honor our mistake and allow the organization to register another couple,” Powers (senior-public relations) said.
Powers could not release the name of the organization that was affected by the wording confusion in THON’s rulebook.
The overall committee and Penn State Environmental Health and Safety have done the math to make sure that adding the couple will not affect the capacity on the floor, she said. Even with the couple and the number of people they are allowed to bring with them throughout the weekend, the capacity level was not compromised, she said.
After THON weekend, the overall committee will meet and evaluate how the weekend went with the extra couple, and the information will be passed on to the THON 2014 committee to discuss how they wish to handle the situation next year, she said.
Melissa Sirera, who was recently chosen to dance independently during THON weekend, said it was great that the THON overall committee was honoring its mistake and allowing the couple to dance.
“I think that people who want to dance at THON should be allowed to dance, and it’s awesome that this couple now has the chance to do so,” Sirera (junior-security and risk analysis) said.
