Seattle University’s smaller size provides the benefit of having more intimate and engaging social events throughout the year. However, due to several factors, the school’s many events may be seeing changes in the years to come. 

This year, two annual events at Seattle U were canceled due to unforeseen circumstances: Center for Student Involvement’s (CSI) Winter Ball and Residence Hall Association’s (RHA) Casino Night. Factors such as budget constraints, inflation and time management are making it difficult for organizations and clubs at Seattle U to keep up campus traditions.

The first of these events to be canceled was Casino Night, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 12. Jan. 8, RHA announced on Instagram that they were postponing the event. Jan. 16, RHA announced that the event would be canceled altogether. 

The cancellations of both the Winter Ball and Casino Night were unexpected occurrences, leaving many students who hoped to attend disappointed.

Regan Luz, a first-year communication and media major, expressed disappointment at learning of Casino Night’s cancellation. 

“As a freshman, I’m constantly looking for social opportunities to create a community for myself—especially on a smaller campus. So I was definitely very disappointed when I heard Casino night got canceled, especially after hoping me and some friends could attend,” Luz said.

According to Fourth-year Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Public Affairs Double Major Anabella Vucci, president of RHA, the organization still plans on hosting its other annual events, including the Spring Carnival. RHA also recently hosted a new event called “Dancing with RHA.”

Vucci believes that traditions and legacy events are events ingrained into the culture of Seattle U. 

“[Traditions and] legacy events only make it to legacy event status if they are good and if they are liked by students and if we find that they are meeting the needs of our community,” Vucci said. “It’s not very often that we as a board will choose not to do a legacy event, it rarely ever happens, but it is possible.” 

Socially, traditions and legacy events are a staple of the Seattle U experience and are usually larger than other social events. There are also a few technical aspects that help define the parameters of legacy events. 

The official term “legacy event” refers to six events put on by cultural clubs at Seattle U, including United Filipino Club’s Barrio Fiesta, Hui O Nani Hawaii’s Lū’au Marianas TaoTao, MECHA’s Celebracion, Vietnamese Student Association’s Xuan and the Office of Global Engagement’s International Dinner. Due to Seattle U’s contract with Chartwells, the company that manages Seattle U’s dining operations, the school can only allow six events to serve homemade food per school year. These events are considered “legacy events.”

According to Peter Vandeventer, the assistant director of the Student Events and Activities Council’s (SEAC) CSI, other annual events are like “traditions.”

“Technically, SEAC doesn’t have any legacy events, although we do a lot of traditions,” Vandeventer said. “A lot of those events are like legacy events, but they’ve fallen into the larger just traditional events.” 

Therefore, events such as Casino Night and Winter Ball are classified as traditions. The intent is the same as legacy events—larger-scale events with a bigger impact, but they aren’t tied to contractual obligations between Chartwells and Seattle U. 

Since organizers for traditional events can’t use non-Chartwells catering services on campus, some rely on alternative venues. One of these events is Winter Ball, which has been hosted by SEAC since 2019. This year, Winter Ball was scheduled for Feb. 21. However, in an Instagram post on Feb. 14, SEAC announced that Winter Ball was canceled.

According to Vandeventer and Soren Kloepfer, the graduate assistant for SEAC and CSI, a key reason Winter Ball was canceled was due to inflation. 

Inflation is a growing problem all over the country, including in the greater Seattle area. The Seattle Times reported that based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical care and housing prices are the leading factors in rising consumer costs in the Seattle area. The national inflation rate is 2.6%, but Seattle’s rate of inflation is higher, which points to the challenge of rising costs that Seattle residents will be feeling for a good while. 

Most organizations and clubs are working with the same budget as in previous years, without an increase or subtraction. According to Vandeventer and Kloepfer, that budget is unfortunately not adequate anymore.

“The budget hasn’t gone down for the Winter Ball or for Quadstock. It’s just that our budget hasn’t gone up or down at all whereas a lot of places have been increasing prices yearly,” Vandeventer said. “[The budget] just doesn’t go as far anymore as it did several years ago… you’re just not able to afford the same level of event.”

The intention behind every event organizer is to put together the best event they can, which includes getting the best venue and food to create a lasting and memorable experience. However, with budget constraints, organizers are often unable to go with their first venue options. 

Celeste Guzman, a second-year social work major at Seattle U, was the Winter Ball chair this year. 

“There were a couple of venues that we looked at that we toured, and we really liked them, but they were out of our budget because we also had to keep in mind other things like transportation and decorations. So we tried to go with the cheapest we could find, which turned out to be KEXP, the radio station,” Guzman said. 

As Seattle U is a smaller campus, most large-scale events need to be held off campus, which adds the challenge of coordinating transportation, security and bringing caterers in. 

“The Winter Ball, being an off-campus event, there’s a lot of hoops that naturally we have to jump through,” Vandeventer said. “Just [from] securing transportation to venues, to the DJ for the music. And then [there are] additional contracts that we do, for instance, we were going to have Cafe Bonita provide drinks at the events, so to get them contracted as well and a photo booth that we were bringing in [added to it]. And so with large events like that, there’s just so many moving parts.” 

As a leading organization on campus, SEAC did not want to put a burden on students hoping to attend Winter Ball. Therefore, when finalizing the contracts for Winter Ball was taking too long, SEAC made the decision to cancel the event completely. 

“You don’t wanna be [in] a situation where we do not have the event completed to our standard, and then all of a sudden students are having issues like not being able to get to the event or they weren’t provided information about the event in an adequate amount of time. So we didn’t want to put the stress or burden on the students, and so we gotta make sure that to continue the event, we need to have the event lead to our standard,” Vandeventer said.

The Winter Ball’s cancellation was also partially due to something all students can relate to: having a busy schedule.

For Guzman, whose role as the Winter Ball chair was to lead and drive the whole organizational process, the combined effect of being an active student and an organizer was overwhelming. Even with a supportive team who were more than constructive in their efforts, being the leader is a position that you learn requires more than your full attention. 

“Because time goes by really fast, [I] shouldn’t have trusted myself that I was going to have a lot of time. So I feel like setting myself a timeline for when things should be finished and when things should go out would have made it a smoother process,” Guzman reflected. 

Both the leaders of SEAC and RHA expressed that when organizing such socials, you always want to hold yourself to the same standard as the previous years. The reason legacy and traditional events continue to happen every year is because of positive feedback and reactions from students who attend. 

Vucci shared that while planning events, there is a lot of documentation for the organizing process. Since legacy and traditional events set a precedent for themselves, it’s important to keep track of how they are run, and RHA’s documentation process leaves a blueprint for all future executive boards. 

“It’s important to maintain those blueprints and follow deadlines, especially for legacy events. Even if you’re repeating something, you have to make sure the structure stays consistent to meet student needs,” Vucci said.

In any circumstance, these event cancellations are disheartening for anyone involved, attendees and organizers alike, as they represent lost opportunities for a chance to relax and connect. These spaces that CSI and RHA provide are the foundation for building relationships and fostering college experiences. Ensuring these opportunities and events stay active is vital to the community at Seattle U. Hopefully, organizations and clubs can find ways to sustain these events that enrich students’ experiences.