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Stroll Off Turns Out Bad at Saint Augustine’s University

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The Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta were lined up behind to thrill the audience with a stroll. The stage begins to get foggy as the Omega Psi Phi rushed the stage and the audience began to scream and cheer from their seats. They set the opening of the show off, the music was great, everybody was jumping up and down I never seen an audience so hype before.

This is exactly what I didn’t get at Saint Augustine’s Stroll off on Friday October 30th. The stroll off went bad, The event was supposed to begin at 7p.m but in all actuality it was a little past 8 when the line up began to follow behind backstage. The greeks was told to bring their music on a flash drive early that day around 2:30 3 p.m. so they DJ can have all the songs in order but it did not turn out that way. The DJ was having malfunctions with his system and the speakers; he also didn’t have the right order of the music for the performances and nothing was compatible with his equipment. Amber Hagin, junior majoring in public relations and a member of the campus board activities went to the DJ to ask if he was having system problems and in response he told her “no”.

Meanwhile, the show is starting and Johnna Mitchell, senior majoring in Mass communications made a video called “Nightmare on Greek street” to open up the stroll off but the audience wasn’t able to see it because the DJ system wasn’t compatible and instead of setting it up to a screen he set it up to the wall. The Greeks are trying to perform while the speakers are messing up and that caused them to have long pauses in between the performance. The hostess Sharia Green alumni and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority was trying to keep everyone going while they were trying to fix the music. I spoke with Benita Mountain, senior majoring in mass communications/broadcast, and she told me: “This stroll off is a disaster”.

Kappa Alpha Psi did their old school stroll, but while they were doing it the music kept messing up. Next thing you know the stroll off ended and not everyone was able to perform because they ran out of time and the DJ wasn’t. Avon Thomas, a senior majoring in mass communications said “ I felt like it was a waste of time because they shut it down early”. Dr. Ronald Brown, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives said everyone will be refunded their money back if they didn’t want to stay for the next event that was suppose to start at 10 p.m. The crowd followed him into the lobby as they began to try to form a line to get their money back.

I spoke with Ann. Brown, Assistant Dean of Student Leadership and Campus Life and she said: “If we had used the company that we normally used for our stroll off or step show, I think it would have gone much better”.