Mad About Midd Wasting away the $42K

Author: Dave Barker

I didn't attend Brainerd Commons' pool party screening of Jaws, but I trembled nonetheless at Dana Auditorium while enjoying Tim Burton's interpretation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Sure, Great Whites are scarier than grooving Oompa Loompas, but the real fright centered on the price difference between the two screenings.

For the opportunity to bob in the pool for a few hours and hear the movie's hair-raising soundtrack, Brained nearly exhausted its "big event" budget of $6,000. Foam floaties accounted for over a third of that figure. With that kind of sponsorship, I would have expected Director Steven Spielberg and the shark now enjoying retirement at Universal Studios to have been in attendance.

Instead, the close to 200 students who showed up throughout the evening were joined by $480 worth of lifeguards. One could be certain that the lifeguards weren't looking for fins cutting through the water; Brainerd had the pool water cranked up four degrees to 87 - Great Whites are usually found in water 20-30 degrees cooler. While Brainerd originally considered 90 degree pool water, increasing the temperature of thousands of gallons of Natatorium water just four degrees sapped oil through the initial heating of the pool and through the ongoing heat loss associated with the higher temperature. At a school that prides itself on veggie oil, wind turbines and a prestigious Environmental Studies program, turning the pool into a bath tub should not have been allowed to happen.

I've noticed that energy gets wasted in other ways by the commons. And I'm not just talking about the unceasing stream of e-mails reminding students to mark their calendars for the upcoming blood drive a fifth time. This year's decision to allot an extra $6,000 to each commons for a "big event" was a wise move by the Finance Committee. Well-planned large events draw students from Allen and ADP to a common area. But the commons staff, too often channel their energies into organizing smaller events and activities that compete with the already-packed calendar filled by MCAB and student parties.

Events that merit spending the per-capita income of a developing country include big lectures like the Billy Collins reading sponsored by Ross last week, as well as concerts or semi-formal dances with catered alcohol. Ask students if they were able to obtain tickets to the early-October "Tender is the Night" ball and the answer would probably be no because of its popularity. While "Tender" was off campus, there's no reason why, with a little commons sponsorship, the Chateau Grand Salon couldn't be turned into a swanky setting for black ties and Mai Tais.

Over in Dana hanging with the Oompa Loompas, I couldn't dip my feet in a chocolate river, but the $500-$750 that MCAB spent for the movie rights left 150 students at the 9:30 p.m. showing satisfied and chlorine-free.