Imagine offending your new boss because you ordered a dish you didn’t realize you hated. Or getting laughed at by your peers because you used the same fork for your salad and your entrée.

The Etiquette Dinner is designed to teach students common courtesy skills while dining, which can make or break first impressions. The tickets for the sold-out event were $20 per person.

Joni Porter, the operations coordinator at Career Services, said learning these skills is crucial at a formal setting such as dinners with a bosses and cocktail parties.

“Where do you put your napkin? What should you wear to a business dinner or setting? What can you do if you don’t like what’s on your plate but your boss is paying for it?” Porter said. “It’s the small things like this that many people don’t think about.”

The Etiquette Dinner is considered a tradition at UCM and is catered by UCM Sodexo. The dinner is typically held every semester, allowing students more chances to attend this event.

However, due to budget cuts this year, Career Services plans to host only one dinner this school year. Porter said if there is enough interest, Career Services will look into hosting additional dinners in the future.

The turnout at the dinner is estimated to be around 70-90 students per semester with a 100-student limit. Due to the large turnout, Career Services chose the Ballroom as the venue.

“The Ballroom can hold up to 800 people,” said Emily Steele, a worker at the Information Desk in the Elliott Student Union. “This allows people to enter and exit safely in case of an emergency.”

A five-course meal features a soup, an appetizer, a salad, a main course and dessert. Porter said this year’s menu includes a sorbet between the salad and the main course dish of chicken parmesan. A sorbet is a frozen fruity slush that allows diners to cleanse their palate.

Tyler Emerson, a senior majoring in dietetics and kinesiology, said she enjoyed the event last year.

“My friend and I attended the Etiquette Dinner last year and it was so much fun,” Emerson said. “You do have to pay, but you learn so much and get great food in return.”

To register for future dinners, students can log in to their Handshake account found in the MyCentral portal. The Etiquette Dinner will be listed under events.

Editor’s note: In a previous version of this post, an incorrect pronoun was used. This post has been updated with the correct pronoun usage.