March 3, 2010
The Pitzer Student Activities Committee (SAC) held its annual birthday event this past weekend, on February 27. The event, which was held in the Gold Student Center Multi-Purpose Room, featured a student DJ competition followed by a performance by popular mash-up DJ, Super Mash Bros.
Planning for the party began last semester, spearheaded by Pitzer freshman Sophy Cohen, who had originally wanted to bring Super Mash Bros. as a freshman event. Encouraged by Associate Dean of Students Chris Freeberg, she brought the idea to SAC. “They said ‘our birthday party is coming in the spring, do you want to do it for our birthday party?’ I said okay,” said Cohen.
In the end, coordinating the event with SAC proved a successful combination of efforts. “There were people from all 5 schools,” said Pitzer’s 5-C Social Chair Senate Social Chair, Christine Zarker Primomo (PZ ’10), “and I’ve had tons of people, even people who aren’t necessarily a part of the ‘party’ scene, tell me how awesome it was.”
Senior Ben Rubin agreed, saying, “I thought that it was a good event, I liked that it brought people from the different campuses together.”
In spite of the favorable turnout, setting up the party was not without difficulties. Rain throughout the day on Saturday forced a last minute venue change from the outdoors, in front of Broad Center, to the Gold Student Center. SAC had rented a stage and lighting equipment that they believed too large to fit in the Gold Student Center. “We had to cut back on the lighting,” said Primomo, “but the stage still fit.”
The bigger problem, however, proved to be funding. Although originally planned as a free event, it was announced shortly before the event that all Claremont McKenna students and off-campus guests would need to pay a $5 entrance fee. This decision came at a time when it was becoming increasingly clear that SAC would be scrambling for funds due to what Primomo described as a “hefty cost” to put on the party. SAC targeted CMC students to pay as a result of a dispute with their student senate over what Primomo described as “negligible funding” and a late decision to throw another (even more expensive) party that same night.
“We were counting on a grand from the other schools, since it was going to be the big 5-C party of the weekend,” said Primomo. “I had already placed the event on the 5-C calendar [that the school social chairs use as a reference for event planning.] Unfortunately, on the first weekend of February, just 3 weeks before our event, Pomona and CMC decide to plan a party.”
The Wedding Party, as it was called, was not your run of the mill weekend party. According to Primomo, it came with a price tag somewhere around $20,000. “The thing that was really frustrating is that this was a Pitzer event that people from all 5-Cs would be excited to come to. There were DJ’s from all other schools coming to perform in the DJ competition,” she said.
Pomona, despite having a hand in planning for the Wedding party, still donated a significant amount to SAC’s birthday party. Claremont McKenna, however, because the Wedding party was on the same night, offered only a couple hundred dollars in support, which their Senate has still not actually approved or provided. For that, SAC decided to charge their students.
Charging at the door made up for some of those lost funds, as will the sale of reusable, glow-in-the-dark cups at future parties. But SAC is expecting to have significantly less funding for events for the rest of this semester, according to Primomo.
“SAC won’t be completely in debt, we might lose more than planned,” said Primomo, “which means less beer money for the semester. But Super Mash Bros. was really easy to work with; everyone loved him. The party was a success.”