This term, the College has continued to offer both in-person and remote programming for students. Both on-campus and virtual events have attracted considerable attendance from students.
Director of student involvement at the Collis Center David Pack said that Caribbean Carnival, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Pride Month have offered a “wide array” of remote and in-person events this term. He added that the Programming Board has scheduled a live concert for every Friday for the rest of the term — the first of which took place on May 7 — and has partnered with Hop Film to bring outdoor movies to campus.
PB executive director Meg Targett ’21 said that as of May 3, the PB has held five on-campus events this term, including a miniature golf tournament on the Gold Coast lawn and a performing arts showcase for seniors on Collis porch. She added that all of the in-person events have been “well-attended,” with the number of attendees ranging from 50 to 250 depending on the venue.
Targett added that she was especially excited to see the return of “Glaze It,” an event featuring pottery and donuts, this term.
“We’ve had [Glaze It] annually for a few years now, so we were really happy to adapt it to COVID,” Target said.
Jenny Chen ’21, who attended “Glaze It,” said that it was one of her favorite on-campus events thus far.
“I also thought it was great that they had options for you to paint in person at Common Ground [at “Glaze It”], which was obviously capped at a certain number, but you could still go to pick up the materials and then drop them off if you didn't get a spot,” Chen said.
According to the College’s student and event activities guidelines, enrolled students who are approved to be on campus can attend any on-campus activities.
Targett said that the PB has taken precautionary measures to ensure only approved students attend its events, including pre-registering students and hosting events in spaces like Collis that are only available to students with key card access.
She added that when there is no pre-registration for an event, the PB will usually collect Dartmouth NetIDs from student attendees to verify that those students have on-campus access.
Pack noted that while pre-registration has helped limit unapproved students’ attendance, some events have not taken any precautions. For those events, the Office of Student Life instead trusts that students will follow campus policies, Pack said, adding that to his knowledge, students have thus far been “conscientious” about upholding campus policies.
In addition to on-campus programming, the College has continued to host virtual programming for students who do not have campus access. Targett said that the virtual “Big Prize Bingo” that the PB held on March 31 saw an attendance of nearly 300 students. Additionally, the PB has added remote components when possible, like streaming the senior performing arts showcase on Vimeo, Pack said.
“In-person events and virtual events often serve different audiences and purposes,” Pack said. “Whenever it is feasible for the goals of a program, we do encourage event planners to consider hybrid events and how to make programs available to as many people as possible.”
Pack added that the Collis Governing Board’s virtual trivia has “still been going strong” this term.
Pack noted that, according to recent surveys, the Office of Student Life knows that many students are “burnt out on virtual events,” which has encouraged student organizations to be more selective with online events.
Diana Alvarado ’22, who is taking class remotely in Queens, New York this term, said that not having access to campus has changed the way she interacts with other people in the College community.
“A lot of students that are currently on campus or local are meeting together in person and starting to move away from Zoom because it’s nicer and more people are getting vaccinated,” Alvarado said. “Whereas I feel like online interactions and online events are mostly only [for] off-campus students, so I would definitely say that I can just feel the difference in the type of correspondence I’m having with my friends.”
Sophia He ’23, who is living off-campus locally but does not have on-campus access, said that her lack of access to on-campus events has not hurt her sense of engagement with the campus community.
“I feel fine because I can still sit on the Green or walk around campus,” He said. “A lot of the parts of ‘campus life,’ like studying at Umpleby’s or eating at the restaurants [in Hanover] and just hanging out with people don’t have to do with on-campus access or activities.”
