Alternative Row Week offers students an alcohol-aware option for partying
Nick DeMoss
Issue date: 3/27/09 Section: News
Pomfret Honors Quarters will host Wednesday the first alternative Row Week, an event designed to provide Row Week entertainment to students who might not otherwise attend parties.
The event is designed to provide an opportunity to students who might not be attending fraternity functions.
"A lot of people go out and party during Row Week but some people don't, especially here in the Pomfret Honors Quarters," event co-chair Laura Weiderhaft said.
The event is funded with help from the Residents' Interhall Congress and the hall senates of Pomfret, Reid, Humphreys and Yocum residence halls. A donation from Housing Initiatives for Student Success (HISS funds) is currently pending.
More than 500 people are expected to attend the event, Weiderhaft said. Nashville-based hip-hop group GRITS will be performing, beginning at 9 p.m. The concert is scheduled to last about an hour. An alcohol-awareness presentation will be hosted Monday in conjunction with the concert.
GRITS is most well known in Christian music circles, but was selected to play the event because they provide a generally positive message in their music, Weiderhaft said. Money was also a factor in the group's selection, event co-chair Jonathan Faught said. Other bands, including Christian pop-rockers Reliant K, were contacted, but could not perform for monetary and scheduling reasons, Faught said.
The alcohol-awareness presentation is designed to promote safe alcohol management. The speaker, Debbie Morgan, a representative from the Pat Walker Health Center, will present an informal workshop designed not only to educate students about alcohol, but also to show them how to educate their peers.
"We're not trying to say people shouldn't drink; we're trying to focus on being safe," Weiderhaft said. "We know telling people not to isn't going to work."
Students who attend the alcohol-awareness presentation will be able to meet GRITS after the show.
The date for the event was chosen to avoid conflicts with fraternity parties as much as possible. April 1 is the night of "date night" functions, meaning that only fraternity members and their dates will be attending.
"While it does interfere with some events, we're trying not to conflict with the big events that fraternities will want a lot of people at," Weiderhaft said.
"Wednesday isn't a very big party night, so people can go to both," Power said.
For some members of the Greek community, a competing Row Week event is not an attack on the Greek festivities, but a welcome addition.
"I'm all for it because not everyone can get into the fraternity houses," sophomore Stuart Power said. Power is a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, whose main Row Week party will be Thursday, April 2.
The event was first conceptualized last year at an Interhall Leadership Summit, but hosting an alternative event during Row Week is something some residence hall staff members have been considering for years, Faught said.
"We hope it will carry on for years," Weiderhaft said. "We're trying to get it off the ground."
The event is designed to provide an opportunity to students who might not be attending fraternity functions.
"A lot of people go out and party during Row Week but some people don't, especially here in the Pomfret Honors Quarters," event co-chair Laura Weiderhaft said.
The event is funded with help from the Residents' Interhall Congress and the hall senates of Pomfret, Reid, Humphreys and Yocum residence halls. A donation from Housing Initiatives for Student Success (HISS funds) is currently pending.
More than 500 people are expected to attend the event, Weiderhaft said. Nashville-based hip-hop group GRITS will be performing, beginning at 9 p.m. The concert is scheduled to last about an hour. An alcohol-awareness presentation will be hosted Monday in conjunction with the concert.
GRITS is most well known in Christian music circles, but was selected to play the event because they provide a generally positive message in their music, Weiderhaft said. Money was also a factor in the group's selection, event co-chair Jonathan Faught said. Other bands, including Christian pop-rockers Reliant K, were contacted, but could not perform for monetary and scheduling reasons, Faught said.
The alcohol-awareness presentation is designed to promote safe alcohol management. The speaker, Debbie Morgan, a representative from the Pat Walker Health Center, will present an informal workshop designed not only to educate students about alcohol, but also to show them how to educate their peers.
"We're not trying to say people shouldn't drink; we're trying to focus on being safe," Weiderhaft said. "We know telling people not to isn't going to work."
Students who attend the alcohol-awareness presentation will be able to meet GRITS after the show.
The date for the event was chosen to avoid conflicts with fraternity parties as much as possible. April 1 is the night of "date night" functions, meaning that only fraternity members and their dates will be attending.
"While it does interfere with some events, we're trying not to conflict with the big events that fraternities will want a lot of people at," Weiderhaft said.
"Wednesday isn't a very big party night, so people can go to both," Power said.
For some members of the Greek community, a competing Row Week event is not an attack on the Greek festivities, but a welcome addition.
"I'm all for it because not everyone can get into the fraternity houses," sophomore Stuart Power said. Power is a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, whose main Row Week party will be Thursday, April 2.
The event was first conceptualized last year at an Interhall Leadership Summit, but hosting an alternative event during Row Week is something some residence hall staff members have been considering for years, Faught said.
"We hope it will carry on for years," Weiderhaft said. "We're trying to get it off the ground."
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