Committee aims to creat senior traditions

                    In honor of graduating seniors, USU’s development department, Alumni Center and ASUSU have combined their efforts to organize a Senior Breakfast and Senior Bingo Night to wish them well as they embark upon their future careers and experiences.
    Breakfast will be served May 5 from 9-11 a.m. for seniors on the TSC Patio, but they must present their USU identification card. Amber Neil, student giving chair for the development office, said that this year she and other member of the student giving board have made a point to work with students on involvement so their senior year is an unforgettable experience. She said she hopes the seniors will be eager to give back to USU later in life. Administrative board members have volunteered to serve the graduating seniors in order to give them thanks for their hard work, Neil said. Administrators will serve pancakes, eggs and sausage, made available by University Catering.
    “A big part of the breakfast is the administration wants to say, ‘Congratulations, we are proud of you,'” Neil said.
    Tonya Davis, senior gift adviser, said universities across the country donate a week to congratulate their graduates, but USU has never done this. She said this is the beginning of USU’s attempt to give seniors something special. Neil said that this semester approximately 1,300 students are graduating and wants them to leave their years at USU on a good note.
    In addition to breakfast, all seniors are invited to attend Bingo Night, which will be held May 6 from 7-9 p.m. in the TSC Ballroom. Seniors are admitted for free and others must pay $5. Seven rounds of bingo will be played, and the winners will receive prizes, which two or three will be issued per round. Some of the prizes include an iPad, iPod, luggage, golf clubs, ASUSU paraphernalia and house appliances.
    “We figure that after college their appliances probably don’t look too good,” Neil said.
    Along with the bingo tournament and prizes, there will be food, a photobooth and a spray-on tattoo artist.
    Neil said she and the senior event planning committee wanted to create events where seniors can feel relaxed and be surrounded by their close friends. They want the events to be a tribute to only the seniors, which is why anyone who isn’t a senior must pay. Another reason the event will be regulated to only let seniors in for free is because Neil wants it to be a tradition that freshmen, sophomores and juniors can look forward to.
    Davis said, “The administration helped the freshmen move into the dorms in the fall, and that is the students’ beginning experience. Underclassmen can look forward to administrators getting involved in the end experience as well.”
    In the following years, Neil hopes to make the senior celebration three to four days, rather than two, and one year create an entire week full of activities dedicated to seniors.
    Davis said, “We at Utah State have never taken the opportunity to wish our seniors well and send them off, because they’ve spent four years working hard, studying and paying tuition. I just think they deserve some kind of well wishing.”
    Another new sentiment will be bagels and juice provided while seniors wait before the graduation ceremony begins. Senior event planning committees are trying to do as much for the seniors as possible with the current budget loss, Davis said.
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu