In a USG meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, a delegate for the Residence Hall Association (RHA) said that Under the Tent, their annual formal on Martyrs’ Lawn, will be replaced with a more cost-effective formal.
The new formal, Fordham’s Inaugural Rose Ball, is set to take place on April 29. RHA has made many structural changes to the annual formal. The event will now be indoors, in the McShane Campus Center, but will still include food, music and drinks.

Executive President of RHA, Salvatore Imbornone III, FCRH ’23, said that RHA has been working hard to plan the event.

He said, “To honor our campus we have decided to name the event The Rose Ball. The location will be in McShane Ballroom and will be a formal night of dance, music, food and friends. Due to feedback from our last dance, we will have a DJ all hours of the event so students can dance the night away. And last, as a result of changing directions towards the McShane Ballroom, attendance will be capped, so buy your ticket as soon as they come out!”

The cost of tickets to the new formal has decreased in comparison to the cost of previous years’ ticket prices. Last year, general admission tickets cost $35 and drink tickets cost $45. This year, general admission tickets are $15 and drink tickets are $25. Ticket prices are decreasing nearly $20.

“Due to our mission to make programming more affordable, we have lowered the cost of tickets to $15 (was previously $35), and our drink tickets will be $25,” said Imbornone.

Fordham students have expressed opinions about changes to the formal. Most students have said that the price change would make them more likely to attend the formal, regardless of its new location.
Cindy Liu, FCRH ’26, said, “Yeah, I would definitely go. $15 is a lot more feasible than $35.”
Samantha Manizza, GSB ’25, said, “I mean, yeah, I would still go, 100%.”

Imbornone also shed some light on RHA’s process for planning and hosting large campus-wide events, such as Under the Tent and The Rose Ball.

“As the Executive President of the Residence Halls Association for the past two years, I have overseen Under The Tent and The Rose Ball. As a student government, we felt that Under The Tent took away from our identity as ‘the voice of the halls’ because the dance required resources and manpower that could be more effectively allocated to the needs of the residents here at Rose Hill. With holding a more cost-effective formal, we can service students with more effective and frequent programming while instilling vast residential hall improvements across campus. In freeing up funding, we are able to allocate more money to hall representatives to better impact their residents as well as hosting campus-wide events such as bingo, movie nights and even an Easter egg hunt,” said Imbornone.

Students interested in attending should get tickets as soon as possible, because of the event’s capacity.

“Tickets will go live soon after Easter Break. Follow @fordhamrha on Instagram and look out for posters for updates like ticket sales,” said Imbornone.