Planning for Spring Fair requires a year-long student commitment

Before you can guzzle your weight in liquid in the Beer Garden and fly upside down with the flesh you've recently gnawed off sticks rattling around in your stomach, someone has to organize Spring Fair.

This year's event co-chairs, seniors Karina Schumacher and Julie Ho, are currently overseeing the group of 45 students who will make all that nausea and more happen for you come the last weekend in April.

Spring Fair is a weekend long, but preparation for those few days is a year-long process. Schumacher and Ho began planning the event over the summer and interviewed students for their staff right after the Student Activities Commission Fair the first week of class.

Once the staff was in place, students were placed on one of 16 committees -- focusing on things like publicity, security, games and contests -- that will work in anticipation of the culminating weekend when they control the campus, and get little to no sleep. The group, one that the chairs hope will become tight-knit like those of past years, will be attending a retreat in Annapolis this weekend.

Schumacher and Ho were both involved with the fair last year, on the committees organizing nighttime entertainment and food, respectively.

The girls have a vision for this year that includes an increase in nighttime entertainment, an Arts and Sciences versus Engineering face-off and a restructuring of booth layout on the quads to allow more room for student groups. In the Mattin Center office, where the two reportedly "live," the News-Letter sat with Schumacher and Ho to talk about this entirely student-run event.

News-Letter: Because the event is so important to the student body, do you think there is added pressure on you to produce?

Julie Ho: Not necessarily. We do it every year so we have our own expectations. Spring Fair will always occur. We're organized, so we don't have to worry about the needs of other people -- we have them in mind already. And we never start completely from scratch each year.

N-L: The standard fair fare is present each year. Is it almost formulaic? What potential for creativity do you have?

JH: Entertainment is the creative aspect. There is no formula for entertainment. It's not like we bring the same kind of music each year. We had a marshmallow shooter last year. We've never had a marshmallow shooter before.

N-L: As chairs, what are the most important decisions that you make?

JH: We try to be as democratic as possible. There are some aspects that they [the committees] control. We trust them. We trust that they'll make good decisions. If they try to bring fire-throwing ninjas to campus, then that's the worst idea ever. But there are decisions, like logos, that affect everyone that we all make together.

Karina Schumacher: There are decisions that Julie and I make. But our job is not to hold [the committee member's] hands throughout the entire process. We spent a lot of time interviewing these people, so we hope that we can trust our judgment.

N-L: With all of the work you put into the event, do you actually get to enjoy the fair?

JH: You know exactly what's going on so it's a different kind of enjoyment. When you buy food you know whom the vender has worked with and why he's here.

KS: It is a different kind of enjoyment. Being on nighttime entertainment [last year] I didn't get to enjoy the biggest day, which was Saturday, because I had to be at the gym starting at 7 a.m. So much was riding on that concert because the previous year's had failed so miserably. But then when Sunday rolled around, I did enjoy Fair.

GC: How has Spring Fair enhanced your college experience?

KS: This isn't one of those clubs that you just join. You have a goal. Not everybody is cut out for things like this.

You're on a staff with 47 other people who enjoy the things you do.

JH: It's not a resume builder.

KS: Unless you want to be a party planner.

JH: I don't think I'd like Hopkins much if I hadn't joined Spring Fair.