Blue Key Heads Malcolm Tolbert ’26 and Frank Hu ’26 model proper and improper ASM etiquette.
Last week’s All-School Meeting (ASM) showcased skits organized and performed by student leaders instead of hosting a typical guest speaker or faculty programming. The collaboration between student leaders and faculty aimed to remind students about expected conduct during ASM, including phone usage and attentiveness.
Drawing heavily on internet humor, the skits were performed by Cluster Co-Presidents, Blue Key Heads, and Student Body Co-Presidents. Frank Hu ’26, a Blue Key Head, shed light on the writing process for the skits.
“We were told to come to a meeting on the Sunday before ASM. We just got an email saying that campus adults wanted us to make skits about behavior [during ASM]. This included the student leaders, Taylor Ware [Associate Director of College Counseling and Upper and Senior EBI Course Head], and Dean Winslow [Dean of Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD)]. We prepped for an hour. We did a lot of brainstorming, and then we met one more time the night before the ASM. Most of the skit-making or rap writing was done in our own time,” said Hu.
To further engage the audience, 50 vouchers for an “All In” t-shirt were placed throughout the pews of Cochran Chapel. Julia Xu ’28 noted that this interactive element, combined with the different structure of the ASM, was effective in capturing the attention of the student body.
“The ticket thing was that there were 50 blue numbered tickets placed in pews across the chapel. They were stuck in the hymnal books, and students who had those could go after ASM to claim an ‘All In’ blue T-shirt,” said Xu. “There was definitely a lot of engagement through the tickets and the t-shirts. I heard a lot more cheers and claps from a lot of my friends and students in the audience than normal.”
Skits ranged from topics such as the cellphone policy to using phones in the bathrooms during ASM. Some students found the skits effective, while others questioned whether the humorous format diluted the seriousness of the message. Elise Zhang ’26 was unsure how the student body would internalize the ASM.
“The message came across, but I’m not sure how seriously students are going to take it, because the way the message was presented was kind of making light of the situation. The way it was acted out didn’t really highlight how important these ASMs are to the speakers and how important they should be to the students. But this approach has been better than what we’ve been doing in past years, which is just sending out emails and expecting students to take it seriously,” said Zhang.
Winslow emphasized that the purpose of this ASM was to help students recognize the value and insight these gatherings can offer.
“I hope that they got a sense that it’s really important to be paying attention. It isn’t just about sitting there, but also that people have been intentionally thoughtful to who we bring to campus, and what we’re hoping they get out of it. We hope that they will keep their phones away. We hope that they will be awake and engaged, and most importantly, we hope that they’ll enjoy the ASM. That’s the most important thing,” said Winslow.
Ware offered insights into what future ASMs could look like. She mentioned that, though skits would not be a regular occurrence, there will be attempts to better engage the student body during ASM.
“I’m not sure if anything’s in the pipeline for additional skits in the coming weeks, but we’re definitely looking to have students involved in each ASM. We’d like to have a lot more student performances of all types, like musical, dance, theater… We just want more students to be involved in ASM. That helps the student body to know what’s out there, too, and be able to recognize incredible talents that their peers possess,” said Ware.
