Over 2,800 Dartmouth students associate the name "Party Bob" with the Weekend Update they receive via BlitzMail late every Thursday night, but not everyone knows the man behind the service.
Randall Poulin '97 said he took over writing and distributing the Weekend Update after its creator, Kenji Sugahara '95, left last year.
Poulin said he got the nickname "Party Bob" during his freshman orientation week, and now everyone just calls him "Bob."
Poulin, originally from Maine, is a pre-med biochemistry major and is involved in ROTC. He is the social chair of Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, where he lives.
"I don't just live at Gamma Delt," Poulin said, "I really live there. I spend all my time there."
Poulin lives on the second floor of the fraternity house, and brothers often go to his room as a social area, Gamma Delt brother Hamish Cowan '98 said.
Cowan said Poulin has a pair of scorpions in his room, and there is a constant chirping because of the crickets he feeds them.
Mason Allen '96, a brother at Gamma Delt, said Poulin started hanging out at the fraternity house the beginning of his freshman fall. Then he pledged. "He is always here," Allen said.
Cowan said, "Bob is the heart and soul of Gamma Delt. He doesn't leave the house, all the social activities come to him."
Cowan said he first met Poulin at a party last winter, and "he just stuck out, he was the life of the party."
Allen said Poulin is well-known on campus. From the beginning of his freshman year gained notoriety through a series of mishaps.
He said Poulin tried to touch the bonfire during Homecoming his freshman year, and he fell in the fire. He had to stay in the hospital for a few days with burns on many parts of his body, Allen said.
Around that same time, Poulin fell of the top of the Hopkins Center while walking around in a "drunken stupor," Allen said.
For more than half his freshman year Poulin worked for Safety and Security Allen said.
Poulin said the Weekend Update is fun and easy to do. He said he compiles the update each week from BlitzMail messages groups all over campus send him as well as BlitzMail bulletins.
He said he also includes the weekend weather forecast as a service to students.
Poulin said he once thought about stopping the Weekend Update because people depend on it "rather than go around looking for something fun to do like they do at other schools."
He said some students even send him BlitzMail messages when he gets the Weekend Update out late.
Nevertheless, Poulin said he enjoys writing the Weekend Update and said it "is worth doing next year, too."
He said he anticipates 80 percent to 90 percent of undergraduates will be on the Weekend Update list next year. He said the class with the fewest recipients is the senior class.
Poulin said he never solicited or advertised the Weekend Update, yet over 600 members of the Class of 1999 now subscribe.
Poulin said he wrote the Weekend Update once last year for Sugahara, another Gamma Delt brother, and then Sugahara asked him to do it permanently this year.
Poulin said he did not like the trademark symbol Sugahara always included with the Weekend Update, and once left it out. He received many BlitzMail messages from recipients wondering what happened to it.
He said he included three trademark symbols the next week, and the Weekend Update has remained that way ever since.
The Weekend Update is not really a trademarked item, nor is it copyrighted, as it says at the end of each week's message, Poulin said.
