While Poison Ivy, advertised as "Dartmouth's premier night club," has been open since Oct. 6, many students interviewed by The Dartmouth still have not visited the club and do not know much about it.
Those organizations and students that have used the space, however, have generally been satisfied with it.
While some students said they had heard of Poison Ivy and a few had been to one of the three events the night club has hosted, others were unfamiliar with the programming option, according to interviews conducted by The Dartmouth last week.
The initiators of the project -- which cost $16,000 just for sound, lights, and dance floor according to Joe Cassidy, the director of Collis -- are not overly concerned about the lack of student understanding about the club so early on.
The space features an extensive sound system, portable floor and intelligent lighting system, which can either react to music or be programmed, according to the man largely responsible for installing the system, Timothy Duggan, manager of night operations in Collis.
While the club is not open regularly, it is now a option for student organizations looking for a site to hold a party.
Duggan said although the floor is now fully functional, it is still being fine tuned and, as of last week, had yet to be used by over 100 people.
Director of Student Activities Linda Kennedy said that the system has not yet been fully exploited.
"What's been done in there so far is like using your iMac for BlitzMail and saying you know how to use your computer," Kennedy said.
Kennedy said use of Poison Ivy will increase once more students know they can use the space to easily put together student organizations' parties.
Those who have used the space said they were satisfied with it.
Lisa Torrey '03, treasurer of Swing Kids, said the group held its regular Friday Night Swing in Poison Ivy on Oct. 13 for the first time.
Torrey said the new dance hall had "more of an atmosphere" than Thayer Engineering School's Great Hall, which the group had traditionally used, and that they plan to use Poison Ivy again for their events.
She also praised Poison Ivy's central location.
Many of those students interviewed told The Dartmouth they have heard of Poison Ivy by walking past it, or noticed it because of the swing event and last week's well-attended La Alianza After Party for the Latino Fall Festival, even though they themselves did not enter.
Other students had heard of Poison Ivy because of publicity for its Oct. 6 opening night or from signs posted in Collis.
Kennedy said many efforts have been made to give student groups better access to these resources, including regular training of student DJs to play for student events. Also, a binder of DJ resumes will be kept for student organizers to choose from.
One recently trained student DJ, Brian Nealon '01, was impressed with the system and said it was a good for beginning DJs who wanted more frequent, lower profile opportunities to play.
One problem mentioned by users of club was its low ceiling. Torrey said if Swing Kids "wanted to do any fancy flips, we had to go outside to the hall, which deeply amused the DDS workers."
