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Student Activities plans to eliminate boredom

By Nikki DiBerardino

On October 22, 2009

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Norwich University's student activities staff works hard to provide entertainment for Norwich students. Students who are not able to get off campus can still be entertained while taking a break from homework.

"We're always planning events for the school year," said Gregory McGrath, director of Student Activities.

"… I have a regional conference every fall and the national conference every spring that I attend and I bring students with me," McGrath said. "At those conferences we try to do some booking while we're there. We try to have things set for the fall while we are here in the spring."

While trying to book events for the school, the student activities department takes into account who they are providing the entertainment for. They try to provide events of interest to all students on campus.

"We book events based on student interest," said Kelly Allenspach, 20, a senior from Andover, N.J. "We also base it on what we hear and the feedback we get from events or what e-mails we may receive from students. We try to arrange a variety of activities."

The student activities staff plans events for the evenings and weekends.

"We really do have something every weekend. Of course we have our weekly events. Every Thursday night there's a pub quiz, every Friday night there's karaoke, and every Friday and Saturday night there's also movies in the Dole Auditorium," Allenspach said.

"There is always poker tournaments, comedians, hypnotists, all that sorts of things. Almost any given weekend there is something going on," McGrath added.

There used to be a coffee house in which students could come, listen to music and get coffee at the mill. However, the coffee house has not been present on campus this year.

"We usually have a coffee house evening every Wednesday night but attendance was poor. The poor attendance was due partly because it was on Wednesday night. It was in The Mill and Rooks couldn't attend," McGrath said. "But we do have live entertainment. This past Saturday we had an entertainer, a live band, that played in the mill,"

There are also special events that are planned for students that allow them to get dressed up and have a good time. Regimental ball and winter weekend are two of these events.

"Regimental ball is corps specific. It is the only corps specific event throughout the entire academic year that I have anything to do with," McGrath said.

"Campus activities board plans Winter Carnival Week in February. Then we have junior weekend, which is primarily for the juniors but all students are invited to all the activities that weekend," Allenspach said.

"The initial idea behind winter carnival was to fill the void of not having another ball in the winter. We aren't asking for prom dresses, but dress to impress," McGrath said.

The student activities board has a couple ideas it is working on so students can be more entertained.

One new idea for the fall season is to have an October fest. The problem with October fest, according to McGrath, is that the fall semester is already full with balls, mid-semester break and family and alumni weekend.

"The thought behind October fest is we would have a couple tents. One might be a beer tent, and one might be a food tent. We can have events and music."

"We are focusing more this year on some regional programming. That will include trips to Burlington, Vt., to go shopping, hiking trips. There are those sorts of things. Trying to take advantage of the outdoors." McGrath said.