On October 3 and continuing on through the weekend, the campus will very much come alive. The grand opening gala for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center will kick off, signaling the start of three weeks of festivities showcasing the new facility. This event is so important that the provost has canceled classes so that students and faculty are free to attend.
That isn’t the only excitement of the weekend, however; just as the presidential colloquy is set to begin, the annual NSBE/SHPE career fair will get underway. While it doesn’t have a flashy new building, the career fair is probably of significantly more interest to the majority of the student population. Even though the concerts and other EMPAC activities should be exciting, the prospect of finding a new job and ensuring a profitable and productive future is, to many, a much more enticing offer.
Furthermore, each of these events will, individually, bring hundreds of additional people to campus, all of whom will have certain degrees of infrastructure that they will require from the Institute. Together, they will combine to create a frenzy of activity and high-profile visitors that will make it virtually impossible to conduct any other business on campus.
Clearly, both occasions were planned well in advance, and perhaps the conflicting dates weren’t caught in time.
Regardless, we urge the campus to be cognizant of both the EMPAC gala and the NSBE/SHPE events and to plan accordingly. We hope the entire campus will get the opportunity to take advantage of both wonderful programs. While they will be competing for attention and resources from the campus, we hope that they do not detract from each other.
