Early Ideas
Since the beginning of the fall semester, I have been thinking of ideas for a Halloween-themed event. Initially, I was going for a pumpkin-carving competition. As someone who is into art and design, I love to see students getting creative and producing art. However, after careful consideration, I realized that this idea presented several challenges.
The primary concern was student participation. A competition of this nature requires a sufficient number of enthusiastic participants to be successful. Given the low level of student engagement over the past year, relying on students to actively participate in the competition posed too much of a risk.
Another challenge arises from determining the prizes for first, second, and third place. These prizes need to be attractive enough to motivate students to put greater effort into their creations, while remaining within a reasonable budget. This part was tricky because there was no ideal prize for everyone. Honestly, without budget constraints, I would have seriously considered an iPhone Duo as a first-place prize.
I scaled things back a little bit by going for a more laid back and chill event. The goal is to host an event where students could choose to hang out with peers, enjoy some food, and take photos in their costumes. "Halloween Hangout" did exactly this. It does not require a minimum number of student participation or RSVP procedures. It serves as an option for students to choose to hang out, even at the last minute.
Selection of Date & Time
It started with the class schedule. It was early October when I went through the Class Schedule Matrix of ELAC to gather enough data about classes. With this information, I was able to produce a weekly calendar of all the in-person classes in Southeast Campus. Access it here →
Wednesday Evening In-Person Classes on Southeast Campus
After examining the full weekly in-person enrollment schedule, the exact date-time of the event was a clear choice. Every Wednesday between 6 PM and 7 PM, there are about 92 students on campus with 21 students from two classes ending around 6:30 PM and 71 students from three classes starting at 6:50 PM. Therefore, 5 PM - 7 PM was chosen as the event run time due to its peak foot traffic. The final Late-start classes of the semester begin on Monday, Oct 26th. Hence, the date of the event was Wednesday, Oct 28th, which is the only Wednesday between 26th and 31st.
This method had its limitations. First, it assumes that all enrolled students will remain enrolled. However, students may choose to drop with a W for various reasons. Moreover, some of these classes accounted for are late-start classes. This means that even if a couple of students drop before the first day, there is a risk of their class being cancelled which could result in loss of more students on campus. Another concern is that some students may simply miss the class on that day due to an illness or personal matters. Therefore, I had to put more effort in promotion of the event to avoid such a circumstance.
The Making of the Poster
I looked for a fall aesthetic design template on Canva and remodeled the entire thing to fit my vision of how it should look like. The background texture, composition, and gradient text color was inspired by an album cover, Midnights - Taylor Swift and the lyrics video of the song titled "Dear Reader" on the album. No Generative AI was used in the making of the poster.
Background Layout
Texture
Final Poster
A coworker of mine also helped me make some minor adjustments. The final poster was presented at the monthly Southeast Campus Council on Oct 8th.
As mentioned earlier, I wanted to make sure that every student on campus is aware of this event. Hence, on Wednesday, Oct 14th, two weeks prior to the day of the event, I printed out about 100 flyers in color and posted them around the entire Southeast Campus during my office hours there. In fact, it was beyond the campus since I got a chance of posting the event flyer on the shuttle bus as well.
I also wanted something huge that would attract attention of students. So, I asked the Student Government Dean if I could spend about $30 on decorations. Upon her approval, I brought this 5 ft tall green skeleton from Target straight to Southeast Campus. I also worked with the ASU Vice President of Public Relation (VPPR) in uploading photos on social media on time.
Additionally, I drew about the event on one of the white boards in the Writing Center. I thought hand written effort could draw attention from students who are oblivious to the printed posters. It took me a while to get the spacing right.
Vendors
Starbucks was the first choice of vendor for providing pumpkin spiced latte at the event. Initial estimate cost was about $7 per cup and with 70 students expected, the total cost was going to be around $500. It felt like a significant expense as the total ASU budget for Southeast Campus for the entire academic year at the time was only $3000.
As I presented the plan to one of the Student Services Assistants, it turns out that she actually knew someone at Starbucks, so she gave them a call right in front of me.
There's a better option. Are you open to ideas?
I'm open to ideas,
she replied with a glint of curiosity in her eyes.
Why don't you call one of the Starbucks stores nearby and ask if they'd be willing to donate coffee? It probably won't be pumpkin spiced lattes though. Just regular coffee.
That's a great idea. We could just buy those pumpkin creamers separately. Thanks for your suggestion.
Just like that, a single phone call saved us $500 budget to be spent elsewhere. Right afterwards, I looked up a phone number of a Starbucks store in South Gate. I reached to one of the employees working there. She said their manager was not on duty, and that they would return the call later.
Later that evening, in the middle of my Physics class, I received a call from the manager. She gave me her work email and asked me to provide the request in writing. By the following week, the coffee donation was confirmed via email.
Challenges
Vendors for pizza and photo booth were not confirmed until much later due to complications of various factors.
We wanted to order a pizza of quality and good taste. However, Lena Ardiendo Pizza Restaurant was not an approved vendor in the internal system, which means that payments need to be made out-of-pocket in advance before getting reimbursed by the financial department later.
The same goes for the photo booth as well. I had previously looked up photo booth services online and found Triumph Photobooth. Even though they had relatively inexpensive prices, we were unable to move forward with them. Instead, we had to reach out to XLA Photo Booth as they are an approved vendor.
Unexpectedly, the Student Services Assistant, that I had been working closely with, was on sick leave for the whole week. Despite being unfamiliar with the vendor procedures, I had to take matters into my own hands to keep the preparations moving forward. The show must go on. I spoke with the ASU Dean and under her permission, requested an invoice from XLA Photo Booth. I also requested paper coffee cups from Costco. In addition, I set aside some of my personal money to cover the cost of pizza if necessary. Fortunately, the Student Services Assistant returned to the office in time to place the pizza order herself.
Timeline & Task List
A week before the day of the event, I created an event in Outlook Calendar to send out an RSVP email to all ASU Board Members and faculty members regarding their availability to assist with the event in-person. After enough responses, I created a task list to assign specific duties and responsibilities to each volunteer, ensuring that different aspects of the event would be covered.
Timeline of the Event
Halloween Hangout
