Spring Ball, count me out

If anyone walked through the Forum last Saturday night they undoubtedly heard loud music coming from Dows.

This loud music came from Student Senate and SAB’s Spring Ball. The Ball featured the Jacob Lee Band for an hour, and then DJs from Moving in Stereo (MIS) played until 1 am. Throw in the beer garden and you have the recipe for a great event, right? Not so much. According to Senate estimates, somewhere between 75-120 people attended, with no more than 20-30 there at any one time. What caused the low turnout? What, if anything, can Senate do to fix the event next year?

My first issue about the Spring Ball lies with the selection of the Jacob Lee Band to perform. While they were awesome and rocked the house, they don’t necessarily play “dance” music. Secondly, if we, as a Senate, were having the band in order to attract people, that certainly didn’t work.

Not to criticize the Student Senate, which I am a member of, but the advertising left something to be desired. A Facebook event is great, but remarkably unreliable. Some posters around campus were also nice, but if Senate puts this on next year, a serious ad campaign will need to be undertaken.

With all of the set-up issues I mentioned, a deeper question needs to considered. Should the Spring Ball even exist? Apparently 3-4 years ago it was a very popular event, and a lot of people went. However, in my two years working the Spring Ball with Senate, we haven’t had more than 100 total people. So the obvious answer is no. Student Senate has far better things to do with the $800 it cost us to put the event on. That’s $800 that can’t go towards a student organization who is putting on an event that more people will attend, or to help put on an ACES event, or anything else.

In conclusion, the Spring Ball was an unmitigated disaster. Assuming 100 people showed up, Senate spent $8 per person to enjoy the Jacob Lee band and have some great Sodexo nachos and cookies. While they were good, they certainly weren’t worth $8. In the next few years, Senate needs to seriously examine if the Spring Ball needs to be an annual event, or if they should just cut their losses and find another way to spend their money.