This semester marks the one-year anniversary since the e.Team has been converted to SPARK, the programming board on campus. In the year since its conversion from e.Team, SPARK has hosted the Spring Concert, Inflatable Laser Tag, Casino Night, and the Silent Comedian and Danger Circus, and more.
SPARK also hosts the Friday Late Night events in the Mohr Student Center and provides funding to host the infamous All Campus Parties on Saturday nights.
SPARK has an annual budget of $137,000. This money is spent to fund the events, pay Facilities Management for setups, pay performers, buy prizes for raffles, and more. Some students express concern regarding the amount of money that SPARK is given.
“For the most part I think SPARK has done a good job with providing campus events, but I think that they could be smarter in spending their money,” said one student, who pointed out the low attendance of last year’s expensive Spring Concert.
Another student simply stated that SPARK is an improvement compared to past programing organizations. However, the student believed that SPARK spends too much money on the raffles and giveaways to attract students to their programs.
A point of controversy is the fact that students that are a part of the SPARK organization get free Nike SPARK jackets, whereas other student organizations have to pay for their own apparel. “Turnout at SPARK programs varies from event to event, but they generally receive high turnout…Turnout amongst first and second year students is incredibly high,” said Patrick Doggett, Assistant Director of the Gates Center.
“I think that the leadership of SPARK is currently better than any leadership of any programming board I have seen in my career, both here and at other institutions. This executive board is smart, conscious of student concerns, fiscally responsible, and programmatically progressive,” said Doggett. SPARK creates more student programs than any other student organization and therefore needs a larger budget. But whether that budget should be $137,000 per year is difficult to say.
