Senior Week is a time when seniors can experience college life one last time before they graduate. Senior Week is planned to be from Tuesday, May 9, to Thursday, May 11, this year, and will include a variety of activities that are currently being planned by the senior class officers.
Class of 2023 President Shira Haus explained that planning has moved from brainstorming events to the execution of them.
Haus said the events include a champagne brunch, a bar crawl, a late-night Kinz event, a hiking trip, a senior ball, apartment starter bingo and a comp burning block party wrap-up evevnt which, tentatively, will be attended by Meadville food vendors.
“We have about seven events so far and that may change as we move into more of the organizing stage,” Haus said. “The seniors have three days before graduation to do activities and experience things one last time. They can take in the fact that these are their last few days before they leave college.”
Because the events will take a lot of work, the committee is currently looking for students to help with executing the plans. Class of 2023 Vice President Jasmin Meyer Jaafari elaborated on the type of work they need from students who want to involve themselves in helping plan Senior Week.

“It would be logistical things such as reaching out to venues, coordination about contracts, submitting finance requests and attending finance meetings,” Jaafari said. “There are not a lot of us that are planning this so any help we can get would be amazing.”
Students who choose to be involved will have people guiding them through the initial stages of learning how to do finance requests and other work that may be unfamiliar to them, according to Jaafari.
“Since this is for the seniors, it would be nice to have more seniors involved so that they can have the senior week they deserve,” Haus said.
The committee had a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9, with the Student Life Office to discuss what kind of involvement they will be providing, according to Jaafari.
“I think it would be great to have some help from them on the execution side of things because they have been providing support and advice about our ideas, which is great, but a lot of us are comping and doing stuff seniors do,” Haus said. “It is really difficult to get a task of this size accomplished while also being under a lot of pressure.”
Jaafari said she spoke with Dean for Student Life Trae Yeckley about the typical amount of help senior classes have, and learned there had been more support from administration in the past. However, due to college staff turnover, it has been difficult to keep records and notes of how certain things need to be done.
Third- and Fourth-Year Class Dean Jonathon May described the discussions had at the meeting around activities and the commencement ceremony.
“We talked about how to accept payments online for students to buy their senior week tickets and I am really proud of the senior week officers for keeping those ticket prices low and affordable for the graduating class,” May said. Tickets will be $25. “In terms of Student Life getting more involved, they are definitely involved. This has been our third meeting so far and we are just getting started.”
May said he believes senior week is one of the most important traditions at many college campuses.
“It is one of those traditions that is so important and sacred here at Allegheny for seniors to have that culminating experience with their peers to reflect on their four years,” May said. “I still talk, visit, go to reunion weekends with my friends from college so it really does last a lifetime and it is also a great opportunity to expose seniors to what alumni-hood looks like.”
One of the key pieces of advice May has given the senior week officers is making sure the events are planned with the big picture in mind.
“Plan things that are really going to appeal to a lot of different audiences,” May said. “Not everyone is going to want to go to a bar-crawl activity but some folks may want to go on a hiking trail. It’s about having a little something for everybody.”
Part of the festivities will be presenting the seniors with their class gift.
“I won’t give away what the class gift is,” May said. “But it is something very special that will create a moment where they have something to take away from their Allegheny experience.”