WEB UPDATE, June 6, 11:00 p.m.
The Hanover Board of Selectmen will consider two Tubestock-related ordinances -- one on open containers and another on outdoor activities -- during public hearings at their June 19 and July 10 meetings.
Many students were worried they would not be able to attend the first meeting because Summer term begins June 22. At a meeting on Monday, the Board decided to continue the hearing on July 10 in order to permit feedback from undergraduates.
"It's nothing more or less than an opportunity for the students to make their case," board member Bill Baschnagel said about hosting the July 10 hearing.
No students showed up at Monday night's meeting to show their support for Tubestock, despite BlitzMail messages calling for a mass student turnout.
The selectmen said they want to hear from students at the July 10 hearing, but were worried about a spontaneous Tubestock happening before they pass their ordinances.
"That doesn't solve the issue of whether they go ahead and have an event on July 8," Allegra Lubrano, one of the board members, said.
Town Manager Julia Griffin said she was pleased that the students she had met with understood her concerns about the dangers of Tubestock.
2008 Class Council President Tess Reeder '08 said she does not think the lack of student turnout at the meeting shows they do not support Tubestock: "I think a lot of it is just timing...this is finals period," she said.
In introducing the idea of having a July 10 meeting, which was considered in front of a nearly empty room when local residents emptied out after a two-hour discussion of local development and its effects on soil and water, Griffin said a student e-mailed her asking to postpone the event.
"I have never heard us deal with a request by e-mail as opposed to someone with the decency to come in front of us with a request even if it's at [nearly] 10 o'clock at night," Board Chair Brian Walsh said. "Having said that I think we should decide this on the merits."
Robert King '08, who sent Griffin the e-mail and has been sending BlitzMail messages encouraging students to help "save Tubestock," said he "didn't feel it necessary to show up" after e-mailing Griffin and told friends not to come.
He does not like the town's solution of hosting a July 10 hearing, but says he may have a legal loophole -- which he would not reveal -- that the town has not thought of.
"I think that [Monday's decision] is symptomatic of the autocratic and underhanded way the town has been attacking this issue," King said, citing a "my way or the highway" attitude in previous attempts at compromise.
Griffin also noted that some students are planning an alternative event called "Fieldstock."
Reeder said the name may or may not be "Fieldstock" but her organization is looking into having another event, perhaps with bands playing at the football practice field.
"In case Tubestock didn't happen we still want a class-unifying event and maybe even start it as a new tradition," Reeder said.
Tubestock is a summer party weekend of rafting on the Connecticut River that has never been sanctioned by the College. Tubestock is a monolithic event during the unique term of sophomore summer and often attracts over 1,000 participants.
