On Feb. 5, the Student Activities Board (SAB) organized a silent dance in the Frey Conference Suite. The silent dance consisted of students dancing to music through wireless headphones. The activity was planned to give students a break from their daily school life, but had a lack of attendance.

SAB came up with the idea when they saw a video at the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA). At this annual conference, SAB gained ideas for activities or events by watching a variety of performances. They decided, out of a few, one would be a good fit for activities at WSC.

Unfortunately, the SAB didn’t get their desired result; the attendance peaked at 15 people.

“We were hoping to have a big bunch of students there,” Sarah Gunion, coordinator of the Student Activities Board said.

“The problem we ran into is that the dates that we wanted to do it,  Frey wasn’t available,” Gunion said. “And it ended up being on a Tuesday.”

Gunion thinks the silent dance could have been more successful if it was planned on a Thursday or Friday because a lot of students had meetings, class and tests the next day.

The SAB promoted the silent dance by putting up fliers and posting on social media. The SAB also had tables put up in front of the Cafeteria and in the library where they handed out information.

One of the students who attended the silent dance, Sophomore Sabrina Sack, thought SAB could have benefited more from advertising, the same way they did for the zoo trip.

“The zoo trip had fliers everywhere, and the more I saw them, the more I wanted to go,” Sack said. “Unfortunately for this event, I only saw one poster the day of the event near the Upper Gag. It was my friend that had suggested me to go so that she could take pictures for a class of hers. I sadly don’t think that I would have wanted to go if it wasn’t for her.”

Sack thinks the concept of the silent dance is a great idea and it gives students something to enjoy at the level they feel comfortable. It might even help students who feel anxious or have a sensitive auditory sense.

The SAB will work on ways to do better with upcoming activities, like the silent dance, to attract more participants. Some of the options could be planning dance events at the end of the week, or even hiring a different company.    

Sack feels like there is some sort of stigma for attending these sorts of functions when students come to college.

“I feel like more people need to open their minds to trying new things, but I also believe that won’t happen unless more of an effort is put out to promote things by our peers,” Sack said.