The Traffic JAM — the latest party offering from the student-run company that hosted L.I.T., Flocka FEST and Sweater Kegger — was promoted on Belmont’s MyBelmont event calendar page.
Clean Boy Promotions — run by Belmont senior Christian Crenshaw, aka “Shady Chris” — promoted and hosted the party at Club Premium Saturday.
The party’s MyBelmont event description encouraged attendees to wear colors designating their relationship status — green if single, yellow if it’s complicated and red if taken — and said 10 percent of ticket sales would go to UNICEF’s Hurricane Irma relief.
Non-Belmont promotions for the event advertised alcohol for those 21 and over, with some of them also including strong profanity.
In an email sent to students Monday morning, Associate Provost and Dean of Students Dr. Jeffery Burgin referred to Belmont students “making poor choices concerning drugs, alcohol and sexual behavior” and reiterated Belmont’s alcohol and substance-free policies.
A little over an hour later, the event disappeared from the MyBelmont calendar.
“We expect Belmont students to do their part by exercising good judgment, looking out for one another, and working to eradicate reckless behavior that could result in harm to any member of this community,” Burgin wrote.
Burgin, who oversees Student Affairs — which is responsible for updating the MyBelmont calendar — was reached out to for additional comment but did not respond.
The event was listed alongside the Urban Pop Showcase, a men’s soccer game and the Nashville Rose Society’s Annual Rose Show Saturday. Those events are still listed.
The event was the focus of Crenshaw’s group project for an Event Management class, which required students to plan an event and get it promoted on the MyBelmont calendar.
Cathy Hill, who teaches the Event Management course — and acted as Traffic JAM’s faculty sponsor — said she was unaware of any previous controversies with Clean Boy Promotions.
Hill submitted the event to Student Affairs to get it on the calendar.
“Part of their grade is that they put the event on the Belmont calendar, but they knew there should be no underage drinking,” she said.
That wasn’t the case at a 2016 party put on by Clean Boy Promotions.
L.I.T., hosted in February of 2016, resulted in around 100 underage drinkers being ejected. A student speaking to the Vision in 2017 said she also felt uncomfortable at the party after being grabbed by older “not college-aged” men in attendance.
Crenshaw also ran into trouble with the university when he promoted L.I.T. as a “Belmont Homecoming” party and sold tickets in the Beaman Student Life Center.
Belmont counsel issued Crenshaw a cease-and-desist order to stop using the university’s name for a non-university sponsored event.
Crenshaw did not respond to phone and email messages Monday afternoon.
At Saturday’s party, underage drinking was closely monitored, said Eric Vattima, a student who attended the event.
“They were very legitimate about that. They made sure that if you were under 21 you got a pat down just to make sure that you weren’t trying to sneak anything in,” he said.
Vattima also noted that wristbands were handed out at the door to identify attendants who were not old enough to drink.
Vattima said he thinks Belmont should promote more events like Traffic JAM, “because this is a showcasing of a promotional company that was founded by Belmont students who are out there taking what they’re learning from college and putting it into effect,” he said.
“I think it’s a very smart idea, and I think Clean Boy promotions is doing a great job.”
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This article was written by Bronte Lebo and Zach Gilchriest.