VICTOR SCHMITT-BUSH
Assistant News Editor
Last week was a big success for Spectrum Entertainment, a student-run organization responsible for many of Fredonia’s most well-known campus events. Students swarmed to the events that unfolded under Spectrum’s Spring annual occasion known as “Welcome Week.”
For every event, each room in the Williams Center was full of transfer students who were new to the campus, but students who had a greater affiliation with the campus community were also joining in on the fun.
Francis Johnson, a junior political science major, acknowledged that most of these events were geared towards new students, but he felt that the community was very inclusive towards everyone involved.
“There were a lot of transfers and freshmen there when I went to the psychic fair, but no one really looked at me differently when I told them I’ve been here for three years,” said Johnson. “Instead, they just asked me questions about Fredonia.”
“We want students to have something to do and we try to have a little bit of something for everyone. It’s the first semester of the school year, and for freshmen and transfer students, it’s a brand new environment,” said Nick Crampton, president of Spectrum Entertainment. “So what Welcome Week does is help students get better acquainted with the community. It’s a great way to get them engaged right away in the first week of classes.”
Most of the events were held in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room, including the psychic fair, movie night, trivia night and bingo night.
At the open mic night on Tuesday, which was held in Tim Hortons, students were given a chance to make their mark on stage and show off their talents. Some students sang, others recited their own poetry and there were even a few comedic acts.
According to Crampton, “Open mic night went fairly well. It was a really good turnout.”
But it was the psychic fair on Wednesday that really kicked everything off to an active start.
“At the psychic fair, all of the time slots were filled in half an hour,” said Crampton. “We hit all of the time slots. We had psychics for three hours, and it filled up in 30 minutes. It stinks for everyone who couldn’t make it in time, but there’s only so much you can do about that. We weren’t expecting to run out of time frames so quickly.”
The psychic fair could be described as both a calm and mysterious setting. The lights of the MPR were dimmed and each psychic was given a table on opposite and perpendicular corners of the room. The speakers above played a low volume flute melody that served to calm everyone’s nerves. It alleviated pressure and prepared students for a peaceful reading. Students were given ten minutes each and lined up by order of time frames to speak with their assigned psychics. For all students, the readings were free of charge.
“I thought the psychic gave me a pretty accurate reading,” said Johnson. “She read me like a book and said some things about my future that made a lot of sense.”
The final event of Welcome Week was the bingo event.
“Bingo is always our biggest event, and we always hold it on Friday as a kind of grand finale,” said Crampton. “We offer a ton of prizes, and students are usually pretty excited about the possibility of winning these party baskets that all have different themes.”
Some of those themes included the relaxation kit, the party kit and the movie night kit, but these paled in comparison to the grand prizes. One student won a Keurig and another won a set of speakers.
One student, Ezra Lyons, a freshman and BFA acting major, won a Fitbit watch.
“This is my first big win, and it’s really cool and nice,” he said. “My orientation week, I won a cheap water bottle at another bingo event. I honestly did not think I was going to win anything, but I’m glad that I showed up.”
According to Crampton, Welcome Week had an extraordinary turn out this year.
“[It] was a huge success. Especially with the new E-Board taking over, everyone on our E-Board did a great job, and I cannot wait to see how the rest of the semester goes for us.”