What’s After Dark, a program founded in 2007 that supported sober nightlife activities, was discontinued last week. Plagued by a shortage of university funding, the program’s elimination may have been justified. However, its abrupt end could have been avoided if the university heeded an idea posed by the Georgetown University Student Association 2012 Student Life Report: merging What’s After Dark with the Georgetown Programming Board.

What’s After Dark was founded in response to increased student demand for late-night events that did not involve alcohol or illicit substances. After five years of mixed results, however, the 2012 Student Life report, a document intended to catalyze improvements to the undergraduate experience, suggested that the creation of What’s After Dark was a misstep in the first place and that the university should instead bolster GPB’s nighttime programs.

That advice, however, was ignored. Now, What’s After Dark has been cut without a comprehensive plan to bring its most successful elements under the umbrella of GPB — or really any visibly comprehensive plan at all. The group’s leftover funding is being worked into other organizations, including those that What’s After Dark had supported. But with a majority of What’s After Dark’s funding going toward the Healey Family Student Center, it now seems unlikely that GPB will be able to make up for What’s After Dark once provided.

The Student Life Report was meticulously compiled with a keen eye to the future of Georgetown. Administrators at the time promised to give full consideration to its contents. While they were by no means obligated to comply with all student suggestions, had they followed the report’s advice in this instance, it’s likely we would not be left scrambling to keep the niche on campus for substance-free programming filled.