A Letter From the President’s Desk: In Regards to Halloween Costumes

Sofia Sklar ‘27

The Ashtray is the satire column of The Phoenix

Dear Members of the Sarah Lawrence College Community, 

Welcome back to Miss Sadie Lou, to all you Gryphons old and new. As Fall has begun to Fall upon our campus, it is time to address the elephant in the room: Halloweekend 2026. Halloween is perhaps my favorite time of the year, but wow, your costumes are truly something else sometimes. I was recently made aware of a Twitter — formerly known as X — post along the lines of the nonsensical costumes of “gay Halloween,” and honestly, I could not agree more. It is with the intention of that message that I share this email with the community. 

As the College is attempting to pivot away from a queer-liberal arts-artsy-college-pronouns-esque vibe and towards a heterosexual different feel, I wanted to provide a space to think about donning  don joke, get it?  costumes that are perhaps more recognizable to normal people. Yes, back in the day, #ThatsSoSLC meant dressing up as Troye Sivan’s bottle of poppers, the concept of a Freudian Slip, a communist dictator, or something else equally gay and annoying niche. 

We loved that! We really did! However, that was before we decided that we kind of want to become the Wisconsin University Yonkers Campus! Now, with all that being said, let's consider what our less gay other friends would think! We wouldn’t want to keep them out of the joke now, would we? Keep that in mind when you are planning your Halloween costumes for this year! The switch can be as easy as dressing up as a generic cowboy instead of Jack Twist, and we are here to support you as you figure out these new costumes!  

We are so excited to see what you all come up with, and we love and cherish student creativity in all forms! When you finally dress up for the big day, make sure to post a photo to Instagram and tag it with #ThatsSoSLC, but please do not choose music with under 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify or Apple Music! Instead, choose to stream something reasonable, such as Taylor Swift’s new song, “Patient Zero!” 

Keeping this in mind, consider this letter not as a mandate nor a judgment, but as a suggestion for a great Halloweekend!

Yours, 

SLCPREZ