This quarter’s “The Big Event” will be put on for the third time by the Student Life and the Department of Student Activities and will host an array of activities for students, faculty, alumni and all of the DU community to participate in. It will take place Friday, Feb. 28 from 8 p.m. – 1 a.m. on campus, with activities stretching throughout the Ritchie Center, into Sturm Hall and all the way over to the Driscoll Student Center.
According to Assistant Director of the Driscoll Student Center Francisco Chacon, this quarter’s Big Event will be bigger and better than ever before.
“It is really a celebration event, and this year’s scale is much larger. Compared to when we first put it on last spring, it has really grown substantially,” said Chacon.
Some might be questioning why the promotional banners, posters and flyers around campus for the event read “The Big Birthday Event.” The name was changed to mark the official kick-off for the DU sesquicentennial founder’s week activities and a celebration of 150 years of the student experience at DU, according to Chacon.
“This is a very special Big Event, so much so that we have gone through and re-branded it,” said Chacon.
This quarter’s event will feature activities such as: a zip line, laser tag, caricature, rock climbing, horse-drawn carriage rides, midnight snacks, casino, a hot cocoa bar, a comedy show, ice- carving demonstrations, movie screenings and other various activities throughout the night. One activity even features giant water balls students can enter into and roll around on the water. Students can participate in any and all of the activities for a whopping zero dollars and zero cents. That is right, the entire event is completely free.
Many of the activities are sponsored by student organizations that offer volunteers to help the nights activities operate smoothly. Some activities will be sponsored by academic departments, such as the hot cocoa bar sponsored by DU Alumni Relations. According to Chacon, there are about 12 different academic departments involved in helping volunteer and run the activities throughout the night. Prior to this quarter, only undergraduate student organizations were able to sponsor activities, but with the expanding range of the event, more and more facets of DU are getting involved with volunteering and sponsorship.
“We see that there is value in bringing organizations together for a common purpose. We are really hoping to promote collaborative efforts throughout this event and further into the student experience,” said Chacon.
Individual students are also able to volunteer their time to help out with the event if they would like. Chacon also noted that this quarter they have made a special effort to reach out to graduate students and promote involvement in that category of the DU community as well.
Chacon mentioned that there are more than a few reasons that Student Life goes through the effort of putting on a large-scale late night event such as this for students. They articulate these motivations in their mission statement.
According to the mission statement, the purpose of the Big Event is to provide a vibrant event that is an alcohol-free alternative activity for students, instill a sense of school spirit and pioneer pride for attendees bring groups together for a common purpose by providing meaningful programming opportunities for student organizations and campus departments, develop community on campus and provide service learning opportunities.
“One of the key reasons that we initiated this event was that we were seeing a significant rise of alcohol-related incidents on campus that was alarming. With events like this were trying to bit-by-bit create a late-night culture that students are able to go to comfortable events that don’t have alcohol at them,” said Chacon.
For more information about volunteering at or attending the Big Event visit its website or Facebook page.
