When it comes to social events on campus, many students automatically credit SAC, the Student Activities Council, with the organization of the event. While SAC is responsible for many of the most memorable events of the year – such as the tent dances, winter formal and Floralia – there is another event-planning group that hosts a wide range of events throughout the year: SAPA, the Student Activities Programming Assistants, run by the Office of Student Engagement and Leadership.
“SAC and SAPA are pretty similar, honestly,” said SAC Chair Julie Sizer ’11. “Except for we don’t get paid and they do, and we’re 100% student run.”
Despite their similarities, Sizer doesn’t consider SAPA a threat to SAC. According to her, SAPA and SAC are mutually beneficial to one another.
“There’s no way with our budget and the amount of people we have working that we’d be able to plan events every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With them taking over Thursday and some Saturdays, it gives us more money to invest in higher quality events, and more opportunities for students.”
SAPA has also benefited from the existence of the two similar programs existing on one relatively small campus.
“We gave them a little bit of financial support for their first event,” explained Sizer, “and we helped staff it.”
Sizer admits initial difficulty discerning between the two organizations. “It was an interesting adjustment having them, especially in making sure that we didn’t overlap. There were some weekends in the fall where both SAPA and SAC had events which competed with each other.”
However, since then, the two organizations have increased communication with one another, and they’ve been more successful at keeping their schedules separate.
SAPA is fairly new to Connecticut College, as is SAPA’s organizer Jeannette Williams, Assistant Director of Student Engagement and Leadership. Williams joined the staff last fall, after a similar position at Johnson and Wales University.
“They are definitively two different environments, which is a good thing,” said Williams. “I’m still adjusting to here, but I’ll get used to it. It’s fun because students here appreciate more of the artsy things, instead of being all about pop culture. It’s fun to do those kind of events here where students attend them, appreciate them and talk about them.”
Williams feels that having the four SAPA students around has helped her get a scope of the student body at Conn, as well as the fact that she advises all of the clubs and organizations on campus, so she’s gotten a chance to meet those students as well.
“If someone wants to start a club, they come and meet with me and discuss their ideas,” explained Williams. “If it’s something that kind of overlaps with another club, I try to get them to go be part of the other club, which seems to make sense.”
One student found this highly ironic, as she exclaimed, “Jeannette’s whole program is a redundancy of SAC!”
However, both Sizer and Williams would disagree.
“The biggest difference is that one has a lot of money and the other one doesn’t,” joked Williams.
In truth, the structure of the two organizations is where most of the distinctions lie. Williams runs SAPA with the help of four students who help arrange the programs. The money allotted to their program by the school pays for the programs, and the students who work for SAPA are also paid.
SAC also started of the year with $15,500, solely allocated to helping other clubs and organizations on campus fund their own programs. They are able to donate a maximum of $750 per event.
“With SAC, there’s a much more community feeling, and I think the reps would feel that way,” said Sizer. “You’re representing your dorm and representing your class, you’re doing it because it’s something you love doing, rather than applying for a job.” •
