Sikes extended freshman girls’ curfew for the premiere of “Catching Fire” last night.

Courtney Martin, assistant director of Sikes Hall, came up with the idea to make the premiere a special event.

“Several of our Smorris [Sikes and Morris] staff members were talking about wanting to go to the movie together, so I decided this was something we should invite everyone to,” Martin said.

Sikes and Morris are traditionally sophomore women’s dorms, but Sikes recently began to house freshmen because of the increasing number of women in the freshman class. Freshmen living in Sikes are still expected to follow curfew while sophomores are not.

“Sikes is a unique breed of freshman and sophomores and we wanted to make sure our freshman could come, too, by extending curfew,” Martin said.

In previous years, freshmen dorms have extended curfew for movie premieres like “Twilight” and the seventh “Harry Potter” movie due to their popularity.

“There is a lot of excitement for the movie premiere, simply because “The Hunger Games” series is very popular, and for everyone to go see it together,” Martin said. “Extending curfew is always reason to celebrate.”

Usually, when freshmen come in after curfew they are required to check in with the desk manager and are issued a warning, but that was not the case last night.

“Everyone who comes in after curfew will need to show the desk manager a ticket stub from the ‘Catching Fire’ movie to get a freebie,” Martin said.

Meme Coleman, freshman nutrition major from Rockwall, said that it is difficult living in a sophomore dorm because the community is different living among sophomores.

“It’s amazing that we get to miss curfew because we’re not going to be stuck in the dorms and we get to experience Abilene after dark,” Coleman said.

Coleman is also a fan of “The Hunger Games” series and was excited for the opportunity to go see “Catching Fire”.

“I read the book series when it first came out and I went to the premiere of the first movie so I said I’ve got to see the second one the night it comes out,” Coleman said.