At Allegheny Student Government’s last meeting before fall break on Oct. 4, 2016, it held a five-minute moderated discussion about the possibility of bringing Winterfest back to Allegheny, sometime in late January or early February.

The discussion was initiated by Senator Amy Currul, ’17, who had discussed the idea of bringing the event back with Gretchen Beck, associate dean and director of Student Leadership & Involvement

“According to Gretchen, it was really fun for students and easy to put together,” Currul said.

Currul began the five-minute discussion of the event, and was asked by other members of ASG to describe what types of events would be part of Winterfest.

“From what we understand there are snowman-building contests … food, a live band in the campus center, ice carving,” Currul said.

Mark Myers, ’19, ASG director of communications and press, said the event seemed like a great thing for students, and may be a chance to bring the Allegheny and Meadville communities together.

“I think bringing up vendors from Meadville would also be a great idea,” Myers said.

Myers said he knows several local bands that might be willing to perform at the event if they chose to include live music as they have in the past.

Winterfest, according to Currul, has not been held for a number of years. According to a Feb. 17, 2012, news article published by The Campus, the event was cut by ASG in order to devote more time and resources to the major concert that year. Currul heard of Winterfest through the article.

According to the article, the cut was not meant to be permanent, but the event did not return the following year, and has not been held since.

Both ASG President Tess Bracken, ’17, and Vice President Sofia Kaufman, ’17, voiced their support for the event, and encouraged Currul and the senior class to move forward in planning of the event.

“The senior class can be spearheading it, but there is no reason why other classes could not be involved,” Kaufman said.

The idea of partnering with Gator Activities Programing was also suggested, and Beck said there should be records on past budgets for the event to give ASG an idea of what to expect in terms of cost.

During his report, ASG Chief of Staff Hayden Moyer, ’18, nominated Samantha Bretz, ’18, to fill the previously vacant position on the Finance and Facilities Committee of the College Committee Council.

Concerns were voiced that due to Bretz’s level of involvement on campus, she might not have time to devote to her position. Moyer said that as part of the interview process, all candidates are informed of their time commitment, and that she had mentioned no conflicts with her schedule.

“Part of the interview process is I give them a better idea of the position,” Moyer said.

Walter Stover, ’17, said he had met Bretz once before and had been very impressed with her. He said she would receive a “very strong endorsement” from him.

A vote was called, and Bretz was approved unanimously.   

Moyer said he will now be seeking applications for a new member of the Curriculum Committee to replace a senior member whose term just expired.

Stover also updated ASG on the ongoing meetings his housing committee has been having with the Office of Residence Life.

Stover said residence life is currently working to have a study done on the Wi-Fi signal strength in all residence halls. He said if there are any places in these buildings where the strength is weak, students should contact him, or another member of the committee.

Stover also reported that residence life has made its changes to how residence halls and rooms will be structured for the 2017-2018 academic year, in order to prevent any students from being surprised when they go to select rooms in the spring. He said residence life made few changes.

“Last year, some pretty major changes were made and students were not alerted until the housing process was underway,” Stover said.

According to Stover, residence life is also working to install QR Codes in all residence hall bathrooms to allow students to report issues with the facilities more quickly.

During class reports, the Class of 2017 announced that it had held meetings regarding senior week and had “made a lot of progress,” according to Class President Brooke Adams.

The Class of 2018 and Class of 2019 reported that their public outreach tabling event was largely a success, and that people seemed interested in what ASG was doing.

The Class of 2020 reported that it was hoping to hold an event in which students would be able to sample food from various restaurants in Meadville. Class President Hamza Masaeed said the event will be a chance for first-year students to become better acquainted with Meadville.

“It’s so they can have an idea of what Meadville food is,” Masaeed said.