By Emma Zaremba
Associate/Copy Editor
“I don’t understand why we have to pay $7 to enter the Skeller on top of the price for drinks when I can get in for free any other Friday night.” This thought, echoed among my peers, was muttered when I sat down to order my 200 days and my 100 days ticket.
All that muttering was ill-informed nonsense. The price for 100 days is reasonable because our money is being used to cover various aspects of the event as well as enhance future senior-themed occasions.
Advertisements for the countdown celebration note that food such as spinach dip, cheese platters, fruit platters and other assorted appetizers will be served. Unless the cheese were imported from Italy and served fresh out of the wheel, I didn’t see how a $7 entry fee was fair.
Senior class president Samantha DiBenedetto explained where these numbers for just a few appetizers came from. A St. Bonaventure employee who caters gatherings on campus was given the approximate headcount (200 students) and calculated a price that would cover the amount of food needed. The cost of food for 200 people came close to $1,000.
The cost of food was my first naïve assumption. I figured simple snack foods couldn’t possibly cost that much, but when you consider the amount of snack food required to satisfy 200 or more people, price spikes.
My second naïve assumption was that food was the only factor in need of coverage. DiBenedetto detailed the cost breakdown and proved that our money is going toward more than snack food.
The DJ’s (Professor Bysiek) rate for the event is $300 for four hours, according to DiBenedetto. “Then we bought complimentary plastic wine glasses, because it’s the Catalina Wine Mixer, for about $130.”
It’s simple math. When you add those amounts together and divide by 200 students, the individual price rounds to $7 per person.
“Why can’t we pay one price that covers all of that and drinks?” This is another question I asked myself and have heard among my classmates. I thought paying one price and receiving a wristband labeling you’ve done so made more sense than separate fees.
“Some people aren’t 21,” DiBenedetto said. “We don’t want to be charging people who aren’t drinking.”
The $7 covers the food, entertainment and decorations provided by the class office. Everyone who attends is required to pay that amount only. Drinks are a separate charge, because 21 years or older isn’t a universal characteristic for our class, nor is it something everyone wants to pay for if they don’t plan on drinking.
“Aside from all that, where does our money actually go?” It’s an age-old question. I can see where the $7 amount came from, but if there’s excess funds or if a profit is made, what happens to it?
Fortunately, the money we spend on these senior events is put into a cumulative account where everything is recycled. Any leftover funds are used for the next celebratory event, or saved for the senior gift at the end of the year, which acts as a donation of sorts to the campus.
“Whatever money (we have) ends up being used to benefit our campus or our students,” DiBenedetto said.
Now I see the entry fee as an investment rather than a burden. I’m investing in our class office to help make the weeks leading up to graduation unforgettable.
Emma Zaremba is the Copy Editor for The Bona
Venture. Her email is zarembek11@bonaventure.edu
