Some Shapadooah feedback is impossible to execute

I am writing this letter in response to the survey regarding Shapadooah that STUB recently gave members of the student body. The survey asked questions such as, "In your opinion, what are the goals of Shapadooah" and "Do you think Shapadooah should have any changes?"

As you may or may not know, Shapadooah is an event hosted every spring by STUB. In the last couple of years, it has received much criticism, which is why this year's STUB board decided to send out a survey; we value what the student body has to say about our events, and we are always looking for new, creative ways to best serve the SPU student body.

We are very appreciative for the feedback we received and have been brainstorming about ways to make this event better. However, I grew a bit concerned while reading some of the responses to the survey. A number of responses reflected some serious misconceptions regarding financial issues and the purpose of Shapadooah.

The first concern voiced by many was that Shapadooah seems to have no clear purpose. Students wrote things like, "The purpose/goals have been unclear to me," "Give it a purpose," and "Make the goal clear."

On this point I will say that STUB has been discussing this concern for a few months now. We have asked ourselves what the purpose of Shapadooah is and we have come up with the following: We the members of the Student Union Board seek to highlight student accomplishments by involving various student groups that represent a variety of student interests, celebrate students' hard work during the past academic year, and promote community through Shapadooah.

We will continue to look for more ways to communicate this purpose more effectively. We hope that we will be able to highlight student accomplishments and student clubs at this year's Shapadooah, in an effort to give the event a more defined purpose.

Another huge concern raised was the issue of money. A lot of students are concerned with how much is spent on this event, and I feel this is a very valid concern. Let me start by saying this year's STUB board has tried very hard to be more fiscally responsible in all of our events. We have been under budget for each of our events this year. Our hope is to do the same with Shapadooah. However, there are limits on how many corners we can cut.

While there were a lot of great suggestions in the survey results, unfortunately, many of them are not possible for us to achieve. One student suggested, "The money could be used on more 37five projects or donations to organizations in need."

Let me address this suggestion and clear up for the record that money not used on Shapadooah cannot be reallocated to other purposes. If that money is not used on the event, it will roll over into the ASSP contingency fund for the next year. Money from the contingency fund is then used to fund projects like the Collegium.

The other big concern that was voiced again and again in the survey was the amount of money spent on food. One student suggested "You can find quality and great food that isn't so pricey."

While this suggestion is something that we would love to try, we are required to get all of our food catered through Sodexho. Sodexho holds a contract with SPU that basically states that it is the only company that can cater events on the SPU campus.

Since the beginning of the year, STUB has been looking for ways to save money, even within the requirements of being contracted with Sodexho. One example of how this will be done at Shapadooah is that we will opt to provide our own tablecloths, as opposed to having Sodexho rent table linens that cost a few hundred dollars.

There was also concern amongst a few students that we are being wasteful at Shapadooah because large amounts of food get thrown away. I am not sure where this concern comes from, because every year at Shapadooah we run out of food. There never seems to be enough for the demand.

Some students feel that we should get rid of the food all together. They view it as unnecessary to celebrate community. I feel that if food was not present at the event, students would not be either. In addition, I will say there is something very communal in gathering around a meal together.

The last major concern seems to be with the inflatables. Students were split down the middle on this issue. Half want them there, and half want them gone. Our job on STUB is to best cater to the desires of the student body as a whole. To try to compromise, we have decided that there will still be some inflatables at this year's Shapadooah, but we have decided to cut back. I can promise that we will be under budget in this area.

Also, to accommodate some students' desire to celebrate without the inflatables we hope to involve student groups that represent a variety of interests on campus by implementing new activities at this year's Shapadooah.

Shapadooah is meant to be a fun event that allows students to celebrate another year of accomplishments, new friendships, community, life, God's blessings, and the list could go on and on. Let us not lose sight of the value in celebration and time to gather as a community.

Kim Proctor, STUB Executive Director

Theology students strangely absent at the Day of Silence

There is pain on our campus, and we, fellow students of theology, are apparently unmoved by it. I attended the dusk culmination of the Day of Silence last Friday. The stories shared by some of the students that had decided to remain silent for the day were troubling. Members of our community are continually choosing to be silent or, in fact, are being silenced by the voices of fear, hate, or plain ignorance. Yet, those of us who have chosen to study the life of Christ and the life of the church are conspicuously absent from gatherings of this sort.

Why are we afraid to be present for these marginalized groups? I would argue that our particular area of study should inform us of the daily task of identifying the one in need. Our absence from events such as the Day of Silence are leaving deep echoes through our community and resigning the study of theology to mere ivory tower musings.

Lee Staman, Senior