SPEC limits fundraising efforts by student groups at Spring Fling

A change in this year's Spring Fling policy is preventing student groups from selling beverages during the two-day festival.

The right to sell beverages, which student groups had taken advantage of in past years for fundraising, will now be limited to outside vendors who have contracts with the University.

"The [Spring Fling] committee has been discussing our policy and decided that in an effort to cut down on unauthorized containers in the Quad and also to serve the best interest of our contracted vendors, we didn't want the student vendors to be selling just drinks," Wharton sophomore and co-director of Spring Fling Catey Mark said.

As in years past, students will not be allowed to bring outside beverages, regardless of whether they have been opened, into the Quadrangle beginning early next week.

The new rule regarding student fundraising has disappointed certain student organizations, including the Penn Band.

In the past, the band has sold water ice and various beverages in the Quadrangle during Spring Fling as a fundraiser.

The group is still allowed to sell water ice, but will no longer be able to sell water and soda.

"It's a big disappointment," College junior Jacqueline Scena said. Scena --the chairwoman of the band's Fanfare Honor Society -- estimates that the band made around $500 at last year's Spring Fling, of which between $200 and $250 was from beverage sales.

"It's definitely a blow. ... We depend on this fundraiser every year," Scena said. "It seems like they keep taking away things from students and giving vendors ... the monopoly on sales."

However, Mark sees it differently.

"We didn't see why students should be selling the same products that our contracted vendors were selling," Mark said. "It was just something that the committee thought would be best for all parties involved."

She would not, however, divulge which vendors have been hired for this year's Fling.

The Penn Band believes that it was successful in its fundraising because it was able to offer students something that would quench their thirst and was cheaper than what the vendors were selling.

"We used to sell lots of water and just lots of general beverages," Wharton junior and band member Rico Franco said. "That sold very well."

Last year, the band sold soda for 75 cents and water for $1. According to Mark, the outside vendors will be selling beverages that range between $1 and $2. However she noted that they would be in plastic bottles, as opposed to cans.

"I think it's a give-and-take. When you start to cater to the vendor, you start to take away from the student groups," Franco said.

Mark said that she did not realize that the Penn Band was concerned about the policy change.

"Quite honestly, I wasn't aware that they were upset with our decision," Mark said. "That wasn't really expressed to us."

Although student groups are not allowed to sell beverages, Student Nurses at Penn will be permitted to give out free cups of water through its Rehydration Station, a booth set up to promote health education and to teach students about the dangers of dehydration.

"It's not a fundraiser," said Nursing junior Juliet Marx, who is co-chairwoman of the Lifesavers Committee, which is in charge of the event. "We thought it was really applicable to Spring Fling."

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