'Collis After Dark' hosts late-night social events
Collis After Dark is a new late-night program on weekends that aims to give students more options for free activities and events between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on campus.
“We’d been hearing students say there’s not that much to do late night on weekends,” Danielle Lajoie, assistant director of the Collis Center for Student Involvement, said. “We wanted to provide an inclusive environment for everyone to fill that gap.”
The program plans to hold a number of events, ranging from movie nights to dance parties, throughout the year in order to better serve the Dartmouth community. Thus far, Collis After Dark has hosted the annual hypnotist performance of Tom DeLuca — a campus favorite — along with a comedy night featuring two of Dartmouth’s very own improv groups, the Dog Day Players and Casual Thursday, and professional comedian M. Dickson.
Both events succeeded in spreading the word of Collis After Dark among students and kicked off the program very well, Lajoie said.
This year, Dartmouth’s Student Assembly is also stressing the importance of increasing the options given to students for things to do on Friday and Saturday nights and plans to collaborate more with Lajoie on this project.
One of Student Assembly’s goals this year is expanding non-Greek social programming at Dartmouth, and Collis After Dark has a very similar vision, Student Body President Suril Kantaria ’13 said.
Student Assembly is hoping to help Lajoie raise awareness on campus of the new program and also encourage students to share their thoughts about past events or ideas for future events.
“We want to make sure that information about what’s happening with Collis After Dark is getting out to students as much as possible and also that what students want for late-night activities is being met,” Student President Intern Janine Leger ’15 said. “It has huge potential to be really successful, but it’s going to take students to get involved and to give feedback on what they want to do on weekend late-nights.”
Collis After Dark is extremely open to all feedback from students, and open to all groups of students. This program isn’t intended to be an alternative to other Greek or non-Greek weekend events, but rather a supplement for students who want to mix it up, Lajoie said.
“We feel that some students will decide they want to go this before a party, or maybe the party isn’t so good so they want something different,” Lajoie said. “We’re completely open to anyone coming and we hope that people see it as a fun, cool thing to do on weekends.”
Some students feel that the program hasn’t reached a wide range of groups on campus thus far, but remain hopeful of the future of the program.
“I’ve noticed a lot of the same people in the crowds at these events so far, and I would really like to see Collis After Dark expand to include more of a variety of people around campus,” Krystyna Miles ’16, who attended both the comedy and hypnotist shows, said. “There are more students than you think who don’t want to go to frats every weekend, and this is an important step to providing more social spaces for the greater Dartmouth community.”
Upcoming Events
Poker Night: Friday, Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. This event will include a poker tournament in Collis 101 as well as more low-key games in One Wheelock for the people who don’t want to participate in the tournament or were bumped out of the tournament. Snacks provided.
Taste of the Blues: Saturday, Sept. 29 at 10:30 p.m. Get ready for a great night featuring a live blues band and delicious food catered by Three Guys BBQ.
If you have suggestions for events that students would be interested in, feel free to blitz Collis After Dark or Student Assembly, and be sure to check the Collis After Dark website for more details on upcoming events