‘Up All Night’ event draws hundreds
By Zach Swiss, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Monday, April 17, 2006
Jennifer Taylor '08 darts through a laser tag arena set up in Collis Commonground Saturday night. Lines could last 30 minutes long for the event.
A cappella, comedy and dance group performances, pong paddle decorating and other attractions drew approximately 500 people to the Collis Center on Saturday for this year's annual Collis Up All Night. The event, which ended at 2 a.m., aimed "to give people something to do early in the night," not to discourage people from going to fraternities, event co-organizer Ruslan Tovbulatov '09 said.
This year, Collis Up All Night-- which was known as Dartmouth Up All Night when it first began in 1997 -- featured laser tag, which had 30-minute waits at times.
Collis-goers could also buy $5 wrist-bands, allowing them to eat unlimited amounts of food throughout the night, including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and a midnight breakfast. The wristbands' sale generated nearly $1,300, which was donated to club sports, Tovbulatov said.
In addition, the Ultimate Frisbee team sold frisbees in the Collis lobby for $10 apiece, which helped the team raise a few hundred dollars.
The night was not without its glitches, however. The Subtleties and the Dodecaphonics both performed in Collis Cafe while students decorated pong paddles in the back of the room. Twice during the Subtleties performance, audience members asked students to make less noise because it was competing with the a capella group's music.
Also, several performance groups were missing members who were away from campus for the holiday weekend. For instance, the Rockapellas, who performed first on the steps outside of Collis, normally feature 14 singers, but only eight members were present for this event, Rockapella Julia DeWahl '09 said.
"It limited our song selection. We could only do songs that had fewer parts," DeWahl said. "We thought it still went really well."
Later in the night Ujima, Chinese Dance Troupe, Fusion, the Subtleties, the Dodecaphonics, Vandana, Dog Day Players and Soul Scribes all performed in different rooms in Collis and students played videogames, pool and poker.
Tovbulatov said that he felt the coordination between the Student Assembly, Programming Board and '09 Class Council that took place this year should serve as a model for how to run the event in future years. He added that next year he hoped to see a larger publicity campaign for the event featuring more fliers in addition to blitz notifications.