A little more than a week after the 2007 Casino Royale-themed prom, the verdict seems to be that is was a success, despite the noticeable increase in security.

Five-hundred and fifty students attended the annual prom last Saturday at the Cocoanut Grove in Santa Cruz. The Cocoanut Grove is a historic landmark in California, located right on Santa Cruz Beach and next to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Palo Alto High School rented out its 6,200 square foot ballroom for prom this year.

Among the glamorously dressed attendees and casino-themed decorations, the security guards stationed along the balcony, above the dance floor seemed out of place. The guards, as well as the pat-down search upon entrance came as a surprise to many.

“I felt it would’ve been better if the administration warned students [about security] in advance,” junior and ASB president Mohammed Abid said.

According to administrator Jerry Berkson, the security guards were a requirement from the Cocoanut Grove site.

“There were about six guards there,” Berkson said. “Their job was to make sure prom was a safe environment and to keep students within the building. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk [right next to Cocoanut Grove] isn’t the safest environment.”

This year’s official theme was “Casino Royale,” but for the student government the theme with organizing prom was “change.”

“There was a lot we did differently from last year,” Abid said. “The first thing is we hired a professional decorator unlike last year when we didn’t and had barely any decorations. We also booked a great DJ far in advance who plays a lot of requests unlike last year.”

Students had both positive and negative things to say about these changes.

“I didn’t like the DJ,” senior Megan Dazey said. “And I didn’t like paying for fancy drinks. However, the decorations were nice and the location was beautiful.”

Other differences from last year’s prom included a buffet-style dinner and unassigned seating at dinner tables.

“Obviously more time went into prom this year,” junior Ryan Drebin said. “The dance floor was bigger, the food was better.”

Many prom-goers last year complained that the dance floor was too small, the dinner tables felt isolated, and the decorations were lacking. This year, members of ASB did what they could to fix all these components.

ASB has already begun looking into changes for next year based on what worked and didn’t work at this year’s prom.

“I think the biggest change we want to make next year is to make sure that, for all the limos, everyone (within a limo) agrees on a pre-determined time to leave prom so there won’t be confusion,” Abid said.