Students don’t seem to miss the student life movie series, a Student Programming Board-sponsored event that has been discontinued due to “lack of attendance,” SPB president Mary Rizzo said.
SPB and Campus Activities made the decision to cut the movie series this year. The organizations, “felt that since people, or enough people, were not utilizing the opportunity to see these films that it would be in the best interest of SPB to take away funding towards this bi-weekly program and to put this money towards other programs,” Rizzo said.
Students agreed that the movie series was a good idea, but few attended regularly. The majority of students questioned had not heard of the program.
“That sucks,” said pharmacy student Apul when he learned that the movies would no longer be showing. “It was really good at the time.”
“It’s a good idea,” his friend Jimie said. “I went to one, I think.”
Senior Yva Schmalzer, a psychology major, had never heard of the movie series. However, she said it sounded like a good idea, “Especially if there’s free popcorn.”
The movie series was a bi-weekly event that showed newly released feature Hollywood films for free in the Little Theatre. The movies played three times a week at various hours, in an effort for as many students to be able to attend as possible. Each student received two MVP points for attending. SPB ordered and purchased the films through a company named Swank Motion Pictures, Rizzo said. Three to five movies played each semester.
“Attendance did significantly go down over the years, which is why the E-Board made the decision to stop the program and put that money elsewhere,” Rizzo said. She was unable to provide an estimate of how many students attended each showing.
Rizzo concurred that the reaction of students has been neutral.
“I have not heard anything regarding the movie series since it has been canceled,” she said. “It seems that people don’t really miss it.”
Last year’s movie series included The Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman, Ted and The Dark Knight Rises.
