The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Residence Hall Association is working to assess and improve The Pulse, the biweekly traveling night club on campus, as it nears the end of its inaugural semester.
RHA introduced The Pulse this semester as a Thursday-night dance club to offer UNL residents a safe alternative to off-campus parties.
“(The Pulse targets) the crowd that’s underage to do a lot of the stuff downtown Lincoln has to offer,” said RHA President Sammy Nabulsi, a junior political science major.
RHA senators offered critiques and suggestions and came up with a few major areas of improvement, such as changing the frequency, advertising and themes of The Pulse.
Instead of hosting the dance every other week, RHA members considered cutting that down to every three weeks or once a month. Among other benefits, it could prevent scheduling conflicts with other RHA events as well as the dances and formals individual residence halls host.
At the same time, senators don’t want to leave behind The Pulse’s faithful followers, the 100 or so regulars that show up every other week, said RHA Vice President Jared Dailey, a sophomore business administration major.
“We don’t want to break it off and kind of leave them hanging,” he said.
When the RHA executive board reviews these suggestions this week, members will also look at The Pulse’s advertising, which Nabulsi said petered out through the course of the semester.
Although the advertising is intended to reach about 6,000 students, about 1 or 2 percent of that population consistently shows up at the event.
“It’s not good that we’re spending a big chunk of residents’ money to the same 100 people,” Nabulsi said.
RHA members stressed the importance of keeping costs low and boosting attendance through free advertising, such as Facebook and word-of-mouth.
“We’ve had over 100 people at every Pulse, but the problem is we haven’t had 100 people there at the same time,” Nabulsi said.
Members also tossed around the idea of assigning themes for each event, such as a beach theme or ‘80s theme. These would be represented through some of the music, and residents would have the option to dress up.
Senators had a number of other ideas as well, including adding strobe and black lights or holding a Pulse event outside. After the executive board looks at the issue, they will bring legislation to the full RHA senate to improve next semester’s Pulse.
“We wanted to do The Pulse this semester as a trial-and-error process,” Dailey said. “Any new project, any first-year thing, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
andreavasquez@dailynebraskan.com
RHA senators hope to improve and attract more to night-life dance event
Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Updated: Monday, November 16, 2009
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