Nine students were confirmed to the Student Association Productions committee (SAP) at the student senate meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 19, each bringing with them new ideas to update and change SUNY New Paltz’s programming.
With one seat still empty, recently confirmed committee members include Cindy Ip, Emma Nichols, Kevin Kleeman, Brad Gorfein, Natalie Felsenfeld, Liz Rubel, Thomas Garger, Jackie Northacker and Danielle Gray.
Northacker, a third-year public relations major who was involved with SAP last year, said she hopes the new committee will communicate better with students.
“We have such a diverse group of people at New Paltz, and I really don’t think the SAP has listened to what they want as far as entertainment goes on campus,” she said. “Students need to know they do have a say in who plays here.”
Student Association Vice President of Programming Anthony Lino said he would enjoy seeing more progressive acts brought to campus that appeal to the overall student body.
Because SUNY New Paltz has suffered from budget cuts, Lino said he hopes this year’s events will result in high sales to make sure the student activity fee is worth paying.
In order to accomplish this, Lino said he has begun putting together a specific traveling committee tasked to reach out to students from other colleges.
“We’re able to go to different student associations and actually extend invitations for our main events,” he said. “I really think that will help our revenue and be more effective.”
Kleeman, a fourth-year English major, said he joined SAP this semester in order to get some hands-on experience in producing a large-scale show.
He said his ultimate goal, as a committee member, would be to bring more popular comedy acts to campus.
“It’s not that we don’t have a decent amount of comedians that come to our campus,” he said. “I would just like to see bigger names, such as Louis Black, Louis C.K. or Kevin Hart, rather than the moderately known comedians we normally see.”
With ideas to create a music and film festival featuring local and traveling talent, third-year psychology major Natalie Felsenfeld said she has enjoyed her experience working and sharing ideas with other committee members.
Felsenfeld said each member of SA Productions this year is diverse and has brought new suggestions to meetings.
“We all seem like really, for lack of a better word, chill people,” she said. “We all have ideas of what we want to bring. We just need to discuss what is possible money-wise and what the public would want.”
Felsenfeld also said she would like to make advertising a bigger part in spreading the word to students about upcoming events.
With the next SAP meeting on Thursday, Nov. 4, Lino said committee members intend to do the best job they can to benefit students.
“One of our main objectives for SA Productions is to have an event that will be enriching to students so they can have an entertaining experience, but also learn something,” he said.