With highs in the 40s and cold wind transitioning Buffalo from fall to the beginning of winter over the weekend, the Student Association jumped straight to spring break with a pool party.
The Saturday event, although criticized by some for a lack of advertising, made a splash with students coming off of midterm exams and post-storm cleanup.
"The timing's because of the winter storm," said Charday Fields, a junior theatre major and SA Assistant Sound Technician. "We wanted to have a party to get people out of the cold and into the pool and having a good time, celebrating surviving the storm."
The timing is also good, Fields said, because many students are under heavy academic pressures at this time.
"It's a great time because it helps people relax from the exams and everyday stresses," Fields said.
In addition to music and a screening of the theme-appropriate "Jaws," SA provided an abundance of free food at the party. People drifted in to eat and stayed to enjoy the warmth, water and congenial atmosphere.
Excepting the free food, the cannonball and bellyflop contests were perhaps the biggest attractions of the night. Contestants eagerly catapulted themselves into the water, spectators squealing upon being spattered by water and groaning in sympathy upon hearing the smack of water upon flesh.
The general mood seemed to be one of relaxation and content, although some students remarked that the turnout was lower than expected.
"That pizza was delicious," said Kyle Brady, a sophomore business administration major who enjoyed being on the panel of judges for the bellyflop contest. "The contests were fun. I wish more people came to this."
Taniesha Sheppard, a senior psychology and health and human services major, disagreed.
"I think it was a great turnout," Sheppard said. "There were a lot of freshmen here, and they weren't used to having a pool party in the fall, in the cold, so they came out tonight."
Some students said that there wasn't enough publicity for the party.
"I think they had good music and I enjoyed the pizza, but it's pretty dead," said Jasmine Worthy, a junior industrial engineering major who learned about the party through Facebook. "There wasn't a good turnout this year."
Worthy similarly attributed the relatively small crowd's size to what she called a "lack of advertisement."
"It would be better if they tried advertising (the pool party) earlier and had better posters up on campus," said Liz Hicks, a first year library sciences graduate student. "I didn't even really know about this, except that my friend told me about it."
SA Entertainment Director Matt Mays said he was disappointed by some students' criticisms of the event.
"We've been promoting this event hard for about two weeks," he said. "We have an entire promotions department that has been writing on chalkboards up and down the (Academic) Spine, putting out fliers up on our bulletin boards and handing out hand fliers. And it's been on SA TV."
The party started about 30 minutes earlier than advertised.
"We ended up finishing setting up the party a little early, at approximately 9:30," Mays said. "We saw no reason to not let the people filtering out of the basketball game come into our party, since the party was already set up."
The event also ended earlier than advertised; the last wet and well-fed students trickled out of the poolside area by about 12:30.
"Once the crowd died down, we figured we didn't want to keep our lifeguards staying here working overtime," Mays said. "We figured we'd let everybody go home and get a rest."
According to SA officials, the second annual Pool Party was a triumph.
"The pool party was a success and everything went smoothly," said SA Hospitality Manager Greg Bacorn. "We hope we can offer it again next year."
"Considering the cold snap we had today, I would say that was actually a really good turnout," Mays said. "A lot of people came out and had a good time. It was excellent."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
