Tufts students will be ringing in the spring semester tonight at the Winter Bash, a dance held by the Programming Board.
The event, which will take place in the Gantcher Center from 10:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m., is an attempt to "kick off the semester with a huge event that everyone can enjoy," senior Nicole Masone, co-chair of the Programming Board, said.
Masone, who shares her co-chair duties with fellow senior Alexis Smith, spearheaded the organization of the Winter Bash in order to "create a new campus-wide event that all students can attend."
The event is in many ways the second semester counterpart to the Fall Ball, the dance held at the beginning of the fall semester. GrooveBoston, which provided entertainment and lighting for Fall Ball, is being hired again for Winter Bash.
Nevertheless, Masone highlights several differences between the two events. Most notable are a series of improvements the Programming Board made as a result of the grievances that arose at previous dances.
At the Winter Bash, the line set-up will be different in order to alleviate concerns regarding long lines and crowded hallways at the 2004 Fall Ball, Masone said. Although students will still enter through the pool entrance of the Gantcher Center, a different procedure will be used to check student identification cards as well as tickets.
"Students will flow through that hallway quickly and feed into an amusement park-style line inside the actual Gantcher Center," Masone said.
Masone explained that this line will be lit and that music will be audible so as to keep any waiting students entertained. "It will not be cramped and will hopefully be more easily controlled than the hallway during Fall Ball," she said.
Also, Programming Board will offer a shuttle bus to take students to the dance. It will stop at the Olin Center and the campus center before arriving at Gantcher.
According to Masone, this service will allow students to attend the event without having to worry about cold temperatures.
"We figured that some students might be reluctant to attend if they had to walk all the way to Gantcher in the cold, so we're trying to make it easier and more convenient," she said.
This is the first year that a campus-wide dance is being offered in the winter. In previous years, the Programming Board held an indoor carnival called A Tid Bit Nippy in the campus center. According to Masone, the location of the event led to overcrowding and long lines.
Unlike the Fall Ball or A Tid Bit Nippy, however, the Winter Bash will cost students five dollars to attend. The tickets, available in the campus center, can be paid for through the points system.
Tufts Community Union (TCU) Associate Treasurer, Harish Perkari explained that this cost is a result of the event's late inception. "The Winter Bash was a last minute decision after the success of Fall Ball," he said.
This price, he said, is the result of the difference in expense to the Programming Board between A Tid Bit Nippy and the more costly Winter Bash.
"We took the funding that was already allocated for Tid Bit Nippy and put that towards Winter Bash, and the only way we could cover the rest of the unforeseen expenses was by charging tickets," Perkari said.
The price of the ticket is not a deterrent for sophomore Lauren Capraro-Gentuso. "I think there's a lot of incentive [to attend the Winter Bash] because you can pay with points - that's basically your parents' money!" she said.
Capraro-Gentuso is excited at the prospect of such a social event in the midst of the currently dismal weather.
This year's Fall Ball was attended by 3,700 students. As for attendance to the Winter Bash, "we aren't quite sure what to expect, but we are optimistic," Masone said.
