Lindsey Boerma
Living Assistant
I am a proud representative of the stereotype of an eager, naïve freshman. Yet just because I fall into the category of an inexperienced college student does not mean that I am oblivious to the difference between successful student programming and entertainment that comes up just short of substandard.
This year, Pepperdine’s Midnight Entourage celebration fit perfectly into one of these two groups. Hint: it wasn’t the successful one.
The letdown of this Midnight Entourage event alone typically would not have fazed me — I have experienced worse disappointment before. It was not until I recently learned the cost the program that I got upset.
The Student Programming Board spent $46,073 on Midnight Madness, approximately 50 percent of its semester budget, according to the Oct. 6th issue of the Graphic.
Although it is against SPB’s policy to discuss specific breakdowns of the costs, most of the money was spent on food, production and t-shirts, according to Student Activities Advisor Dustin Vyers.
I racked my mind for what else could have possibly cost that much money. So, I flipped back through the pages of my memory to recount the exact experience.
When initially told about the phenomenon that was the Midnight Entourage, visions of students decorated in obnoxious but oh-so-necessary orange and blue Pepperdine gear frolicking around a carnival-type atmosphere danced in my head. There was, at least, Willie the Wave, which in my mind is virtually interchangeable with a carnival clown. Yet, despite that sole similarity between my imagined scenario and the actual event, there was not only a strikingly low number of students donning their school colors, but there was certainly no frolicking.
While the preceding Madness Village held in the Firestone Fieldhouse parking lot was well-planned and thus successful in theory, the astonishingly low student participation annulled its potential.
Of course, students and parents alike finagled their way into the “free stuff” booths easily enough, but hardly anyone took advantage of the enormous rock-climbing wall and inflatable obstacle course that were the most conspicuous attractions of the event.
The turnout of the actual Midnight Entourage celebration in the Fieldhouse was no better.
Perhaps even more disappointing than the severe lack of student participation, however, was the actual program itself. Even now I am uncertain as to what was the climax of the nearly two-hour event.
Supposedly it was the Court of Champions, an introduction of the fall athletics teams as well as past Pepperdine champions and the new mascot, Willie the Wave.
Yet, by the time introductions actually began, student attention had been drawn away to more important things such as the pain that they were enduring from sitting on the hard-as-rock bleachers for an extended period of time. Who can blame them? The entertainment “building up” to this supposed pinnacle consisted of obscure skits, malfunctioning videos and endless performances by various Pepperdine dance troupes and cheerleading squads.
So what else filled up that enormous budget?
Sure, there were giant inflatable things (those can always leave a wallet clean) but there were no other big things worthy of taking that kind of money.
Should my hypothesis turn out to be correct, that would mean that our student programming fees are going toward free cheeseburgers and a mediocre portrayal of “Entourage” that only 1,500 students, family members, faculty members and alumni enjoyed.
Had SPB not splurged on this one event, perhaps more money could have been put toward booking a more popular band than Jars of Clay for the fall concert or some other upcoming event in the semester.
Yet, if the annual Midnight Entourage budget will continue be through the roof regardless of how successful it is, the only solution that I can conceive is to get students involved in the planning of the events through such means as student surveys.
By doing this, SPB will not only be ensuring that such a significant chunk of the budget will go toward a program that is above substandard, but also that there will actually be participants there to enjoy it.
11-02-2006