Senior Week set to take place thanks to a small, dedicated committee

By: Megan Garvey
Posted In: News

The countdown has begun. One week left until the most exciting week of one’s college career, Senior Week. A group of students and the Student Activities Office has been working all year to plan a weeklong party for the senior class.

“All graduating and walking seniors, graduating in May, are invited,” said Bart Carithers, director of student activities.

Salve Regina’s University’s 2004 Senior Week will take place during the week of May 10 through 14. The week will conclude with the Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement that weekend.

Salve is a small university compared to other schools, and the budget for Senior Week is $7,000, which is a decrease from $8,000 in years past. The funding for the event comes from the student activity fee.

A large university, like Northeastern University, has a budget of $45,000 and they receive this money from their office of student activities. During their week, Northeastern offers a variety of events for their seniors. Some examples are a trip to Mohegan Sun casino, an evening at the Good Time Emporium, and a formal dinner at the Top of the Hub.

The planning for an event of this size is a yearlong task. A group of Salve senior students came together in November to begin discussing ideas for their week. The group met three times last semester to begin planning. During the second semester, the group met every other week. By second semester, that group of students has decreased to four seniors.

“We started out with a large group, but it matters who is left at the end,” said Carithers.

Along with Carithers, Meghan Ashe, Stephanie Dupuis, Mike Walsh, and Julie Scansaroli are a part of the committee for this event. The planning for Senior Week is generally easy because most of the events Salve hosts are annual.

With the seven events that will take place, the group had thought of many other ideas. One idea was a cruise along the Newport Harbor. The school decided not to sponsor this event, and the group had to think of something else.

This year, three new events have been added to the original events that have taken place in the past. The week will consist of the following events for all graduating seniors who have purchased tickets.
* On Monday, May 10, a Senior Brunch will be held in Miley Cafeteria for the seniors to enjoy Miley one last time. The brunch is free, but the cost for each student is $9.50 from the student activity fund. Monday night, seniors will take over The Garden bar in downtown Newport. The committee has rented the bar for the night for seniors and the cost for a ticket is $10.00
* On Tuesday, May 11, the seniors can enjoy a day at the PawSox baseball game for $10.00. And that night they can take a trip to Connecticut to gamble their money at Mohegan Sun. The cost for the trip is $10.00.
* Kempenaar’s Club in Middletown will host a Lobster Bake on Wednesday night, May 12. The lobster bake will cost $25.00 per student. For this event, Kempenaar’s waits for the number of students that will be attending before beginning to plan. The restaurant will provide recreational activities for the students during the night.
* Then, the night many seniors have been waiting for, the 54th annual Commencement Ball. The dance will be on Thursday night, May 13, and will cost $50.00.
* The week will end with the Alumni Cocktail Reception, which is sponsored by the Alumni Office. The reception will cost $5.00 and includes two free drinks for the students, and will take place in the Young Center Ballroom on Friday, May 14.

With the events that are annual, the lobster bake, the commencement ball, and the cocktail reception, the planning is only a phone call away. The committee calls the companies and then make decisions in regards to the number of people, the menu, the decorations, and anything else that will be needed for the students. Carithers usually takes care of the older events with a phone call; he is the person who is needed to sign the papers.

This year, Salve is breaking records with the amount of participation. Four hundred students will be walking during graduation. For the casino night, three buses have already been reserved. For the lobster bake, 150 tickets have been sold, which is twice as many as before. Tickets for the cocktail reception amount to 120, which is far more than the 80 that were sold the year before. The commencement ball has sold 476 tickets and the cap for the event is 500 tickets.

“We get the contacts, tell them what we want, and then Mike wheels and deals the prices,” said Meghan Ashe, one of the seniors on the planning committee, about Mike Walsh.

The four seniors that are planning the week stayed with Carithers because they either knew people that have done the planning in the past or have planned other events and wanted to be a part of this one.

“It is kind of exciting to be a part of the planning for such a fun event,” said Mike Walsh.

“It is fun and exciting to be out and say that we have booked the band that people are enjoying,” said Ashe.

Even with a small budget, the committee does not have a problem with going over-budget or booking events because of lack of money.

“We have not been told no to any of our ideas,” said Julie Scansaroli about the budget for the week. Ashe added they are conscious of the amount of money they have and do not plan something that is too expensive.

Senior year is a time for parties. It is the last time the class will be together as students of Salve Regina. After the weekend, they will be considered “alumni.” Schools began sponsoring Senior Week because students were doing these events by themselves and schools wanted to be a part of it.

Most of those past events revolved around alcoholic affairs and for schools to gain some control, they decided to sponsor events to try to calm some of the reckless behavior and to protect the students.

Next week is the last week for the senior class to be together. It is a sad, exciting, depressing, but happy time for the class. Seniors will be experiencing many emotions throughout the next week and into their celebration leading up to the Commencement ceremony.

Good luck to the senior class and everyone wishes you well in your future endeavors.