Freshmen and returning students who arrived on campus last week were greeted with Welcome Week programs ranging from salsa dancing and free food to the larger weekend performances of Phantom Planet and the annual favorite Capitol Steps.
By far the largest events were Friday's Phantom Planet concert, held in the Tavern and sponsored by the Student Union Board, and Sunday night's political satire performance by the Capitol Steps. The Capitol Steps show, which was sponsored by the Kennedy Political Union, drew a crowd of 1,200 students to the Woods-Brown Amphitheater.
Although the SUB show started later than most students anticipated and featured the opening band Wait Til Friday, 680 people stayed for Phantom Planet. Freshman Kristen Boghosian said she didn't realize there would be an opening band, but "even with the long wait and heat, it was a really good concert."
At many of the other events throughout the week, free food was offered and disappeared quickly, with attendance far exceeding the expectations of the Student Activities staff. At a two-hour event in the Letts Game and Recreation Center over the first weekend of Welcome Week, 250 students crammed into the GARC caused the free chicken wings and water ice to disappear within 40 minutes.
The attendance at all of the events was high, with 400 students packing into the Tavern for salsa dancing one night and 450 more turning out to this year's Pick Your Flick, which featured the student-selected movie "The Break-Up" in the amphitheater.
A new event, and one of the most popular, was the "Night on the Red Line," also sponsored by Student Activities. According to Student Activities staff member Leah Kreimer, the line for this event stretched from the lobby of Mary Graydon to the flagpole on the quad half an hour before the scheduled start time.
The 375 "Night on the Red Line" participants went to various campus stations themed after red line Metro stations. Pizza, coffee and other snacks were available at the stations, which were manned by Student Government members. Those who reached each of the stations received a prize at the end, and some groups of students competitively ran through the quad to reach the stations quickly.
