All-Campus Party
Photos by Alyska Bailey x'01

Aiming to create a new springtime tradition at UW-Madison and to provide non-alcoholic social events, the Wisconsin Alumni Student Board (WASB) launched a campuswide alcohol-free celebration in April. The All-Campus Party 2001 took a year to plan, involving the work of more than one hundred student volunteers and twenty-five campus and area organizations. WASB leaders are pleased with the popularity of the party's thirteen events, which ranged from a pizza giveaway to a concert by rap legend Run DMC.

"We were trying to create a socially responsible alternative to high-risk drinking," says Matt Kopac '01, WASB's vice president. "We hoped to engage as much of the student body as possible, and the turnout far exceeded our expectations."

Kopac cites ticket sales for the Run DMC concert, which brought in a thousand more students than planned, and attendance at the party's free film festival, which was more than double expectations. During the party's blood drive, he says, so many students showed up that "the Red Cross ran out of blood bags."

Reducing high-risk drinking is one of the goals Chancellor John Wiley MS'65, PhD'68 set when he took office. He was so impressed with the success of the All-Campus Party that he invited its organizers to dinner at his house to thank them personally.

WASB is a nonprofit campus organization sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association and dedicated to forging links among students past and present. Its student directors for the coming academic year have already begun plans for an All-Campus Party 2002.

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