At the beginning of the semester, Conn’s Student Activity Council (SAC) promoted a live performance of Dreezy. The Chicago-born rapper has worked with mainstream artists such as 6LACK, T-Pain, and Jeremih and boasts over one million followers on Spotify with an additional 64 million listeners on her hit song, “Body.” Dreezy seemed to have the type of clout Conn students have critiqued previous performers for lacking. She was well-known in the mainstream music world, was popular among relevant celebrities, and produced an R&B sound that booms in residence halls on a Saturday night; yet on the night of her performance in the 1962 room, two weeks into school at the height of student excitement about the recent arrival on Conn’s campus, there were officially less than 20 students in the 1962 space. “It was so sad. We didn’t value her,” says Fiona Noonan ‘21 who did attend the concert but left after five minutes of being one of five people in the cavernous room. While the lack of attendance left students discouraged, this is far from a new occurrence at Conn.
At times, the misconception behind why Conn students don’t attend events is because we don’t hear about them. A concert, activity, or event could be advertised weeks in advance, but there is always someone who learns about the event the day of. Poor communication between SAC and the student body seems to be a good excuse, given that information is consistently being chucked at students in the form of emails, posters, Instagram posts, and Facebook events. Through advertisements, SAC constantly attempts to acquire the attention of Conn students.
However, a recent survey I conducted at Shain among Conn students disproves this theory. 20 students were asked whether they had heard about the Dreezy concert and if they attended. Four out of 20 did not hear about the concert, so they did not attend. Four out of 20 heard about the concert and did attend, but 12 out of 20 heard about the concert and still did not attend. While there are various personal reasons behind absences and communication about events can always be better, the results from the survey moved the conversation away from inconsistencies in communication and into the structural enablers cultivating a lack of attendance.
Being a small liberal arts college sometimes means there are less options, less spaces, and no Greek life, which is the backbone for good parties at larger universities. However, we have formed our own variations of a lit get-together in the the Ridges and Winchesters. These options have a particular appeal. The Ridges and Winchesters are isolated spaces, separate from academic environments on campus. Headed by various friend groups and sports teams, getting into a house produces a level of exclusivity a Greek house might and diminishes the supervision that occupies dances in the 1962 Room. “They (Administration) pretend we’re not college kids, who don’t do the things we do,” says Noonan.
Jeanette Williams, Director of Student Engagement, attributes attraction to the Ridges and Winchesters to the allure of risk it poses. The potential that a Ridge party could be dismantled or that a friend group could be turned away begged questioning by Williams: “Why risk attending a party where you could potentially be turned away when there are parties on campus where you would be welcomed?”
Noonan agrees that risk does attract students to the Ridges and Winchesters. She also recognizes that, while perhaps counterintuitive, the preconception that no one will attend a SAC event discourages students from attending and has become a given in Conn culture. The Ridges and Winchesters continue to be more relevant than Cro dances because each weekend we have decided people will be there because we will be there.
Events at Houses on the other side of Route 32 are also advertised unlike orchestrated events; instead of an accumulation of posters and dinging notifications, students utilize a tried and true method: word of mouth. Word of mouth gives the impression that everyone’s talking about the Ridge on Saturday. While that might not be true, communication within friend groups about an upcoming event might just be the fix for the poor communication we’ve assumed we’re missing. Word of mouth also produces an inflated hype that no poster can match. Word of mouth circulates traditional events at Conn such as Fall Ball (Tent Dance), Festivus, and Floralia which needn’t be plastered along the walls of Cro because students are aware these are happening. There is a natural hype that resonates behind these events through years of verbal advertising.
SGA President Jamila Ezbidi ‘19 reflected on her personal experience of Conn culture while working on the SGA administered Stay-at-Conn weekend initiative. During her freshman year, she recalled that she attended Cro dances every other weekend and was often met with a full house. “It was a place where you could meet people,” she remarks. As years have advanced, however, she has noticed decreasing attendance at SAC events. The Stay-at-Conn weekend, which occurred during the second week of November, was proposed to revitalize attendance at events by encouraging students to stay on campus and participate in the functioning events. While the Thursday event, Decorating Succulents, received an overwhelming turnout, the Wednesday event, Taste of Conn, and Friday night Wicked Peach concert was less attended.
Chair of Student Activities Council Alicia Muir ‘19, who advised Ezbidi during SGA’s work on the weekend initiative, recognized a similar decline as Ezbidi during her years at Conn. She joined SAC her freshman year in hopes of positively affecting experiences at Conn and has continued to do so through her current position as SAC chair. Like many Conn students, she is duped by the lack of attendance commenting, “I don’t understand why people don’t stay.” She does, nonetheless, recognize multiple inhibitors to full attendance at events. Amidst current conversations of renovations in Cro, Muir credits poor locations as a discouragement to attend activities. “Even physical spaces on campus affect the social life… you could have a wedding reception (in Cro) one night and a college party other night.” The failure to create discrepancies between spaces alters the predetermined assumptions of what those spaces are. As certain spaces have multiple uses, we have refused to associate the 1962 room as solely a DJ space because it acts as a fitness room, presentation environment, and a space to host elegant dinners. Muir advocates for new spaces, but at times presenting new locations can be fraught with logistical issues including permits for noise and size and equipment compatibility.
When advertising, SAC carries out several steps in hopes that students will be aware of an upcoming event. Initially, the event is posted to Connquest and thereafter follows a series of social media postings and posters. However during an interview, Muir pointed out a potential area in which posters, a current advertising tool, could replace. The entrance wall of Cro displaying upcoming events and information is overwhelming, and instead she has proposed the installation of a large digital screen displaying events. While one may have to wait for a full rotation before seeing a missed event, the screen would eliminate the mass confusion of posters and become increasingly sustainable. As our attention can never be simultaneously focused on multiple posters, the hope would be that a full focus on one poster would mean a guaranteed attendance by that individual.
Going forward, there are several goals pertaining to the structure of SAC that Muir hopes to change. Muir, who currently fulfills three positions in addition to her own which include positions in finance, film and co-sponsorship, wants to motivate more students to apply for open positions on the council. “We’re being overworked, we need more people,” she says. The addition of committees focusing on school spirit and multiculturalism has left little room for position flexibility. More students applying for these positions will disperse workloads equally, while also introducing more diverse voices into SAC discussions. She acknowledges that divisions between the council resonate “in the sense that there is a specific group of people who plan specific things.” New or rotating voices will help bring new ideas to conversations. She also encourages students-at-large to attend meetings on Sundays at 3 in the Ernst Room.
However, lack of attendance remains largely an issue that can be fixed with a swift solidarity among students. Williams remarks that “students need to be proactive, we can’t force feed you,” and says that students should, “trust the students planning the events– they know how you feel.” As with anything there is only so much they can do, without the help of Conn students, we might have to meet them halfway. •
