Procon finding new and exciting ways to entertain

OLIVIA RICHMAN — General Assignment Reporter

They are the people who bring Southern Connecticut State University movie nights, PB&J Thursdays and trips to New York City. They are the people bringing students events to attend all semester. They are Programs Council, ProCon for short. 

Brittany Magruder is a member of ProCon. She is the music and cultural events senior programmer. As a programmer of music and cultural events, Magruder is in charge of most of the concerts that take place at SCSU. 

What does Magruder have planned for this semester? 

“There is a Welcome Back Dance (on Wednesday),” she said, “followed by a Welcome Back Concert on the [September] 16. It’s one of the biggest events of the semester.” 

The Welcome Back Concert is $5, general admission. The two acts that will be rocking out at the concert this semester, according to Magruder, are A Rocket to the Moon and the Ready Set. 

“Even if you’ve never heard of the Ready Set,” said Magruder, “you’ve heard of their famous song, ‘Love Like Whoa.’” 

Dori Dorvillier, a sociology major with a minor in political science, is the social issues senior programmer on ProCon. 

“There is going to be a self-esteem event called ‘Stay True To You’ held in October,” said Dorvillier. “AIDS awareness week is in December, ending in a fashion show. We have ‘Don’t Forget to Laugh,’ which is a stress management thing for September 11, the anniversary of 9/11. We will be working with Judicial Affairs to set up the event.”

The Stay True to You event in October is being held around the same time of the New Jersey suicides. 

“We’re working on building people’s self esteem,” Dorvillier said. “We want people to be themselves, not try to be someone else.”

ProCon and its many programmers are constantly trying to find new and interesting ideas. They have several ways in which they do just that.

“There are conferences,” said Magruder. “where different Universities give each other ideas. We also have to use a lot of our own creativity. I also do events based on tradition. Things have been done (at Southern) for years, such as the Welcome Back Concert and Spring Concert.” 

“If (the idea) is good enough, we will pursue,” said Nick Gleifert, a member of ProCon since his freshman year. “Also, our meetings on Mondays are open to everybody. We take those ideas into consideration for next semester.” 

Dorvillier said she also has other sources. 

“Basically (I do programs) based on what’s going on around me,” she said. “I look at society and figure out what needs to be displayed. I have a group of friends and I also ask people what issues they think need to be brought to the table.”

Magruder said she agrees that involving students is important in creating future events at Southern. 

“We do Facebook polls and Student Center polls, where I go around asking people what they feel about an event and what they think we could have done to improve it.” 

In the past, Magruder has worked on concerts and Spring Week. She has also put together two acoustic coffee house concerts. 

“The amount of people that come to a concerts marks how successful a concert has been,” said Magruder. “If it’s a small event and we are giving out products, we see how happy students are with the product. If it’s a dance, we see if people had fun.”