At 10pm on Friday February 1st, the dance/electronic group duo Party Pupils performed in the 1962 room in Crozier-Williams. Party Pupils was a major act for the College to get. MAX, a member of the group, is becoming a name in the music industry. He was featured in two tracks from Hoodie Allen’s debut album, People Keep Talking. In 2015, he also performed with Fall Out Boy, Wiz Khalifa, and Hoodie Allen on the Boys of Zummer Tour. But despite his name recognition, MAX and Party Pupil could not attract a large crowd. For quite a while now, Conn students have become notorious for skipping events organized by the College. Various organizers–such as the Student Activities Council (SAC) and Associate Director of Student Engagement Jeanette Williams, criticized the choices students make when deciding between school-run events and pretty much anything else. However, I would argue that low attendance at school sponsored events isn’t necessarily a “Conn problem.” Rather, the fact is that at the end of the day, college students are never going to be interested in weekly/bi-weekly events held by this school or any school for that matter. The College continues to suppress off-campus parties and events. It tries to compensate for party break-ups by holding events that are uninteresting to the student body and ultimately force students to venture off to bars in New London, of all places, to have a good time. The College, like thousands of other colleges, should allocate money and resources for parties to be held responsibly off-campus at the Winches and Ridges rather than the potential dangers of partying and drinking in public places like the bars in New London.
The Party Pupils concert was met with a mediocre attendance of between 30-50 people at most at a given time. Could this low attendance be tied to the fact that students don’t like partying in the same spaces that are used to meet teachers on Parent’s Weekend? Could it be the fact that the “party” space seems too institutional, located just a floor below where many academic dance classes are held? Or that the 1962 room resembles a space to hold dances in middle school? Clearly, whatever the reason, the space seriously hinders students from showing up. On a day of the week (Friday) where things are rarely happening on campus, you would think that these events would maybe have a greater success, but the lack of imagination concerning the parties continues to drive students away.
Even though the events themselves are approved by the College, SAC is a student-run organization that works “to enhance and diversify the social experience for students at Connecticut College.” So, if a student-run organization is playing a role in organizing events for students by students, it’s hard it believe why we as a school don’t find interest in them. Except, at the end of the day these events are held by the College. Any College sponsored event will appear less exciting and “cool” to students than an off-campus party.
Party Pupils, after the lackluster attendance, went to Twitter to ask their following about their, “worst/most embarrassing/least attended gig of your career.” They proceeded to say, “we might do the same after tonight’s college gig. Lol.” So yes, this musical group called the school out for not showing up to their performance but at the end of day, skipping out likely wasn’t much a loss. While up-and-coming, the group isn’t yet big enough for anyone to really care, and our College isn’t big nor wealthy enough to book a more well-established group. Party Pupils did end up deleting the tweet, but college kids likely aren’t going to go see a new group that lacks widespread name recognition, especially if the school organizes it. The school isn’t going to pay to get a relevant artist and, as a result, no one is going to show up, especially given the fact that the school itself is under 2,000 students.
At the end of the day I believe if the College wants to attract a larger audience, it must tap into something that will actually bring students to want to come to their various events. The imagination needs to be constantly elevated in order to compete with events held by students that will likely be more attractive. If not, then the College needs to be prepared to understand why their events will be seen as second-tier compared to what is happening on campus that is organized by students.
