Slow Start For ‘Fun Board’

After receiving $200,000 from the College to plan five to six major social events for this academic year, the newly-created College Events Board (CEB) has carried out only one so far and does not plan to hold any more major events this semester.

The CEB—which was created last year after the Undergraduate Council decided to cede responsibility for campus-wide social events to an independent body—has not spent a large portion of its funding so far, according to Campus Life Fellow John T. Drake ’06.

“We’ve been pretty conservative in spending,” he said, adding that the board has spent “less than half” of the money.

The two major events originally planned for the fall semester included a “welcome back” event at the beginning of the academic year and the Harvard-Yale pep rally. While the CEB successfully organized a carnival in September, the Harvard-Yale pep rally was cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

Despite the pep rally’s cancellation, the board does not plan to organize another major event before the semester ends, according to Drake.

“We’re not obligated to have another event just because we had to cancel the other event,” he said.

Although the pep rally was initially slated to cost about $10,000, the CEB only had to pay $1,500—mainly for cancellation fees—because the event did not materialize, according to Drake.

Both Drake and Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II declined to release the cost of the September carnival.

The CEB has also planned a number of smaller events.

In addition to the Freshman Costume Catwalk, the board plans to hold a Lion King sing-along night in the Science Center next Monday where free popcorn will be distributed. “The thing that I am pushing for is that it is possible to put on smaller scale events that, while still campus-wide, may not be so big that the whole campus could attend,” said Tessa C. Petrich ’07, chair of the CEB.

But such small-scale events have not run up the bill this semester either. “Those are relatively inexpensive,” Drake said. “They are pretty low-impact events.”

It has not yet been determined what will happen if the CEB does not spend all of its $200,000 by the end of this academic year, according to Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71.

“We have not discussed unexpended funds and will address those toward the end of the year (if there are any),” Gross wrote in an e-mail.

But McLoughlin said the board will most likely spend more money next semester due to the high cost of Yardfest.

“I can tell you that it’s not unusual that we’ve spent less than half because the largest event is Yardfest since there is a huge artist fee,” he said.

In its first year, the CEB has encountered some difficulty in the planning phase, Petrich said, noting that the inaugural board was elected in May and only had a few months to plan the events.

“I think it’s been a difficult semester. We had a very short term,” she said. “It was tough dealing with this period of time to get things going.”

The current board’s term was interrupted by the summer break, complicating the planning process, Petrich said.

Elections for the new board begin today and Petrich said that it will benefit from not having its term interrupted. But some houses have seen a dearth of applicants.

As of the original application deadline of midnight Friday, no one had declared candidacy from Adams, Cabot, Dunster, or Leverett.

As a result, the CEB decided to extend the deadline another 24 hours, according to Drake.

All houses except for Leverett now have candidates running, Drake said, adding that he thought the initial lack of candidates indicated poor communication, and not lack of interest.

“I’m mystified by Leverett,” he said. “I don’t know what the deal is.”