I’m writing in response to the Wednesday column “Dancers need more prep time for THON.” In her column, the author overlooks one huge contributing factor: money. The lottery system and many other organizations’ dancer selection processes work on the concept that year-long competition for dancer slots will lead to more money being raised in the fight against pediatric cancer. If someone gets picked to dance in September or October, then what would motivate them to raise money for the rest of the year?
You could argue that the truly philanthropic students will participate just as much, but my guess is that the overall fundraising numbers would decline. On the flip side, this would also affect people who were not selected — especially seniors who are taking their final shot at dancing in Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.
This is certainly not to say that the money we raise is more important than a dancer’s health. However, there’s nothing stopping people from training in advance to prepare themselves in case they are selected. Perhaps THON could do a better job of encouraging potential dancers to start training earlier, but moving the dancer selection dates into the fall semester is probably not the best way to remedy the issue of dancer preparation when looking at the big picture of the philanthropy.
Matt Krott
senior-mechanical engineering
