Bruin Bash, one of the largest and most popular events on campus helps kick off the new school year. The Campus Events Commission, an official wing of the Undergraduate Students Association Council is primarily responsible for organizing the event. Assistant News Editor JJ Yang sat down with Campus Events Commissioner Penson Liu and discussed his responsibilities and his vision for the future.
Daily Bruin: What motivated you to run for commissioner?
Penson Liu: For Campus Events it’s usually an in-house candidate that runs. (This means the commissioner is selected from inside the campus events office and is not affiliated with a political slate.) Being commissioner, it’s really helpful to know how the commission works. You can’t learn from just observing, and its something you pick up from being in Campus Events for a few years. I applied spring quarter to the Web staff and last year I was the general marketing director for Campus Events. The reason I chose to be our candidate is because I started learning more about campus events.
DB: Bruin Bash, which the Campus Events Commission organizes, always books big-name acts and is one of the most popular events on campus. How does your office handle all the logistics?
PL: You identify possible artists that students would like and you check and see if their prices is within the budget. Other schools in California have huge entertainment fees compared to us, but we reach out to the agents trying to negotiate a better price and when we come to an agreement we both like, we draft the contract.
DB: Besides Bruin Bash what other events does your office sponsor?
PL: We have three main genres. We have our films programs, which are the free sneak previews of movies, the two dollar movies, which are movies that are either out on DVD or about to come out, and the Campus Movie Fest, the students film festival, free concerts at Westwood Plaza or Kerckhoff Hall, and the speakers series.
DB: One of your election platforms was to expand online marketing. Besides Facebook, what other areas have you explored?
PL: We’re focusing a lot on our Web site to provide more content to be more engaging to the students. Right now we’re trying to get up every event we’ve ever had and trying to find any media archives to have it there for students to see and appreciate the rich history of campus events. Also, someone could write a post about back stage stuff and post pictures or sound clips just to give that extra experience the students don’t necessarily see if they just go to an event.