LDOC festivities see increase in EMS transports, decrease in student attendance

Wednesday's Last Day of Class activities saw a decline in the number of students attending on-campus programming, LDOC Committee Chair Serena Rivera-Korver wrote in an email to The Chronicle.

Rivera-Korver, a sophomore, explained that students who did attend the activities seemed to enjoy the programming, despite cuts to the DUU budget for this fiscal year. However, she mentioned that off-campus darties—daytime parties—decreased student participation in daytime DUU programming and the evening concert. 

"A-team and the LDOC committee noticed that drinking had moved from West Campus to off-campus darties, which is a major concern," she wrote.  

This led to fewer students attending events such as the night's concert, which was headlined by the rapper Aminé and also included Gryffin, Loote and Small Town Records performers Simon White, a senior, and Sara Held, a sophomore.

This year's LDOC also saw four students requiring emergency medical services transport for health-related reasons—two students due to alcohol, one due to a fall from a skateboard and the other due to a minor hand cut from a glass bottle. No EMS transports took place at last year's LDOC, and two students were transported from LDOC festivities in 2017 for health-related issues.

Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, called LDOC "an extraordinary festival of fun" and credited student leaders and support staff for the day's events. He is set to step down June 30, making this his last LDOC as a Duke administrator.

"For my final LDOC, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. The weather was delightful," he wrote in an email to The Chronicle. "The concerts were lively, entertaining and full of smiling students enjoying the great Duke spirit. Overall LDOC was safe, spirited, communal and fun!"

Junior Vivian Chen said that this year's LDOC festivities were her favorite yet.

"The highlights for me were jamming out at the silent disco and when Aminé came on to perform," she wrote in a message. 

DUU also partnered with Duke Recreation and Duke Religious Life to provide activities on the Chapel Quadrangle before the concert, Rivera-Korver mentioned. She also wrote that it was "fun to see" students taking photos and videos next to large, cardboard "LDOC" letters arranged in various places around campus.

"I think it was a great day," she wrote. "Students really seemed to be interacting with our programming and enjoying themselves."

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