Broad Street Wants No Part Of SPW Failure

Spring Party Weekend. Supposedly the best weekend of the year, though I imagine that’s up for debate – and up for debate it has been this past week. What is hilarious is that Ram Parimi, the President of the Student Government Association has been absolutely missing in the discussion. I serve as the Community Coordinator for Bunche House, as a member of the Broad Street Community Council, and as of two weeks ago, an Executive Board member of that council. Last Monday – two days before Ram’s submission was due to the Maroon-News and four days before this article was made public – Ram and Casey came to the Broad Street Community Council (BSCC) to pitch whatever meager ideas they had about SPW. And they were meager. To be fair, Parimi wrote in this past week’s “Ramblings” about the same thing that he said at the BSCC meeting; he writes, “Our vision is to have Broad Street serve as a quasi-block party with a different activity in every house that wishes to participate … The activities will tentatively take place on Saturday from 12-6 … Saturday will definitely include some major catered events, great food, and great music.” Now, I personally questioned the whole idea of SPW on Broad Street: how would we fund it, since ResEd and/or the BSCC funding would be all we can apply for without student group involvement? Why all of a sudden does Broad Street – its residents, its houses, its property – get stuck with the enormous responsibility of hosting parties, lunches, and concerts for the entirety of campus? No answers were given, and they have yet to be.If Parimi attended a meeting on Monday in which the general consensus of the governing body of Broad Street said ‘we are unsure if we want to participate, please get back to us with a more refined, better thought out plan’, how is it that on Wednesday – again, two days later -he submitted an article saying “Saturday will definitely include some major catered events [my emphasis].” We’ve definitely agreed to one thing: absolutely nothing with the SGA. On our own, sure, there are plans for catered parties and other events, but as the SGA’s back-up plan to a failed original – no thank you. Broad Street does not want to be a part of SGA’s potential raging failure of a Spring Party Weekend, nor do we want to be held responsible for upholding the most hyped weekend of the year; if SPW fails with our name on it, we fail. And, quite frankly, it is not our failure to claim – there was a SPW Committee, there is a current floundering SGA-run group. Let them fail.So, where was Parimi during the meeting? He seemed to attempt to answer questions, but then, quite clearly, did not listen to the responses that the people that his plan requires gave. In order for his plan to work, Broad Street houses – like mine – need to get on board. I am, and my residents are, anything but on board. And, for that matter, where has Parimi been all week? I have had various long, in-depth conversations with Vice President Casey McCormack, in which all of the abovementioned complains – and then some – have been outlined and discussed. But Parimi just does what he wants to do, and says what he wants to say; well, here are my Ramblings: Broad Street will not be aiding the SGA until and unless the SGA does something better than just tell us they failed, miserably, and need a place to host events.