JORDAN PATTERSON
Staff Writer
With the start of the Spring semester, the senior class begins to eye the finish line. While the white flag brandishes in the air, signifying that this is the final lap, seniors look to leave something behind.
After many ideas were discussed, the Senior Challenge Committee members weren’t initially all in agreement about a gift. The committee wanted something that would be used frequently and that would benefit the school. The final decision was that, at the end of the year, the class would gift a pavilion stage to the campus.
Senior public relations major, Chair of the Senior Challenge Committee and Senior Class President Stephanie Willis said, “That was an idea that I came up with after a meeting with Dr. [Virginia] Horvath … We had our first couple of Senior Challenge meetings, [and] we threw around a bunch of ideas. I took our list to Dr. Horvath, and we were talking through a bunch of them.”
The original list of ideas did not even include the pavilion stage. Instead they included included adding furniture, dedicating a room on campus and scholarships, but these ideas lacked immense enthusiasm from the committee.
“[These were] nothing that anyone was too excited about. So, after meeting with Dr. Horvath, we were both kind of settling on a few things. I don’t know how it happened, but then we came up with an idea for a stage. We were saying that we wanted ‘something that could be used, something that actually has functionality,’” Willis said.
The pavilion stage, which already has half of the final price paid for, will end up in Dods Hall Grove before Commencement later this year.
Although the committee came to an agreement back in October, it just recently announced the gift after finalizing the process and getting approval from Horvath, university president. The committee then went to speak to Campus Life, which is the organization involved with all the of the booking for the venues on campus. Another person the committee consulted was Director of Facilities Services Kevin Cloos.
“We looked at what was possible. I had gone there to kind of talk to him about it, and he had already done a bunch of research, and he brought up a bunch of companies. He had a bunch of pictures and ideas of what could happen. We actually found a really good company out of Pennsylvania,” Willis added.
The goal for the senior class right now is to raise $20,000 to pay for this gift. Willis admitted the price of the stage will range between $15,000 and $16,000, but there are other expenses that come with a purchase such as this.
Willis later explained, “The reason we’re shooting for more is because that stage is just those pieces. So, what we want to use with the extra money, if we can raise it, would be a placard that would have a list of all the names of all the students who donated, a new metal piece that’s going to go over the top and be like a seal for the stage, and there’s some brick work that were going to get done.”
The class has planned out several fundraising events throughout the latter half of the school year. Some examples of these events are Chiavetta’s Chicken BBQ on April 22 and a Champagne Reception on April 24, hosted at The White Inn. In addition, proceeds from the upcoming 100 Days Til Graduation on Feb. 4 at Old Main Inn will go towards the senior class.
Apart from the previously mentioned fundraising, the Senior Challenge Committee is attempting to get as many students from the 2016 senior class to donate $20.16. The incentive for the donation is that each student who donates will be honored at graduation and have their name included on the aforementioned placard.