How to Haunt the Stamp

Eliana Geller
Special Events Director
seespecialevents@umd.edu

It all began when I was an incoming SEE director in March 2011.  I was training to become the Special Events Director when, at a weekly SEE Executive Board meeting, the President approached the Board about Pepsi Funding.  Every semester, Pepsi will give student groups the opportunity to apply for event grants and SEE had the opportunity to submit two proposals.  The SEE Director who makes the proposal has to thoroughly explain the event.  He or she must describe how it will appeal to a wide audience of campus citizens, contribute to the development of a campus community and increase the opportunity for cultural and social exchange.  After reviewing our proposals, Pepsi will decide if they want to co-sponsor the events proposed. 

Because I would be a programmer the next semester, I had the opportunity to present an idea to Pepsi.  I chose to propose a haunted house to take place during the month of October, around Halloween.  The previous Special Events Director had given me the idea and in researching entertainment companies, I came across one that brings giant haunted houses to locations across the US.  I called the company and spoke to a representative who gave me details about the haunted house and prospective dates.  This would serve as important information for my proposal.  I asked the company’s representative to put a date on hold for SEE.  SEE cannot officially commit to any events until we have research based off of student surveys to back it up as well as full Executive Board approval.

Shortly after I sent my proposal to Pepsi, they agreed to co-sponsor the haunted house.  Next, I approached the SEE Board about the event at a weekly meeting.  I told the board that the company would come to campus to set up a 40 ft x 40 ft haunted house tent structure.  I was hoping to have the event on the Hornbake Plaza.  In case of rain however, I reserved the Grand Ballroom in the Stamp Student Union.  The company brings everything necessary to fill a haunted house.  However, they do not bring people to “haunt” the house so I was challenged with finding “scarers.”  The Executive Board approved my proposal and so I was able to move onto the next step of reserving the haunted house.  The company then sent us contracts that, once signed, would make the event official.

By the time fall semester started, the only thing left to do was find “scarers” to fill the haunted house.  I sent emails to faculty at the theatre department, to student groups, and to the SEE Tech and Security teams.  I received some responses but not enough to have a completely functional haunted house.  And so, I turned to my fellow SEE Directors to help me out.  Almost everyone on the Executive Board stepped up to put on a costume and frighten students.  I could not have been more thankful.  The Directors’ willingness to always lend a helping hand makes me so glad to be a part of this organization.  As a Board, we will support one another through anything.

That week, I watched the weather like a hawk.  It could not rain on Wednesday (the date of the haunted house)!  That would ruin the event!  As I sat through an exam on that Wednesday at 1pm and listened to the rain fall outside, my heart broke.  I’d been envisioning a giant structure taking over Hornbake Plaza for months and suddenly rain was pushing my event indoors.  As I walked to the Stamp, the event’s rain location, I accepted the fate of the event.  The show would go on!  The company’s van arrived around 2 p.m. and we immediately got started setting up the haunted house.  Loading in all of the supplies was hysterical as we were bringing in zombie babies, creepy clowns and giant spiders.  It took us three hours to put the whole haunted house together.  The haunters arrived and put on their costumes just before 6 p.m. and then we opened the doors.

It was amazing to watch people pour into the Grand Ballroom and hear the screams come from the house.  Despite the event relocation, almost 375 students walked through the haunted house in three hours.  We received great feedback and all parties involved had an incredible time.  Things went so well that we may even consider making this an annual event!  Stay tuned with SEE to find out!

The Research Behind SEE

Amy Waterhouse
Research Director
seeresearch@umd.edu

What most people do not realize about an organization as large as SEE is that there are so many different pieces that must work together to successfully put on events for the campus. As of last year, all proposals made by our programming directors (Cinema, Comedy, Concerts, Lectures, Musical Arts, Performing Arts and Special Events) had to include some form of relevant research to show that students were interested in or were seeking out the event being proposed. This means that if SEE directors wanted to consider having an event on campus, there must first be the student demand for said program to guarantee students would attend and enjoy the event.

How is this possible? That’s where research comes in!

As the Research Director, it is my job to:

1) Work with the programming directors to see if an event is desired by students and would be a good fit on campus

2) Discover from students what they want to see on campus and share the results with the Executive Board

In this sense, my job is both proactive and reactive. On the reactive side, I help SEE’s programming directors look into different artists, comedians, lecturers, etc. and survey students to see the demand on campus so programmers can make decisions about what events to propose. In addition, information that I help SEE’s programming directors find include anything from average ticket cost, number of shows per tour, where the performer or artist has performed before, or average audience size.

But the proactive side is where it gets interesting. For this side of my job, I get to reach out to the student body, usually through online or paper surveys. This side goes beyond merely what students want to see on campus. It also allows us to see things such as, which demographics we’re appealing to, what days and times are best to plan events, and how much students are willing to pay for tickets.

Last year during our biggest survey of the semester, the Art Attack Day Events survey, I collected and input over 1,200 paper surveys. We received lots of interesting feedback on a range of different topics, from what kind of giveaways students love best to who to bring to the fall concert. The SEE Executive Board was very excited to see what information the survey would provide us for the upcoming year.

But when I was browsing through the demographics section, I realized that the results were overwhelmingly female; over 70 percent! I filtered the survey to see what answers male students had put and the results were completely different. This discovery came as a huge surprise for me; from my experience, surveys are one of the simplest, most effective ways to find the likes and dislikes of a group. But with such a skewed perspective, I knew that in order for the results to be entirely unbiased, I would have to view them as two separate surveys.

This had never happened to me as Research Director before, and it definitely opened my eyes to the importance of appealing to different demographics on a campus as rich and diverse as ours. UMD is a campus of over 36,000 students, each with varying interests and opinions. It is our job as the programming board on campus to work to appeal to all of them! So when you see future surveys from us, please take the time to fill them out, no matter who you are. You can influence the events we bring to campus and I cannot emphasize enough that we want to bring events that YOU want to SEE on this campus.