Woo After Dark to provide alternative programming
Matt Woodward
Contributing Writer
Woo After Dark is a developing student activities group dedicated to late-night programming at The College of Wooster.
The idea for Woo After Dark stemmed from a need for more late-night recreational activities on campus that Julia Zimmer, interim director of Lowry Center and Student Activities, saw in the campus community.
Zimmer notes that having more late-night programming and alternative options on the weekends has been a goal for the Lowry Center and Student Affairs in recent years.
The need for a specific group dedicated towards late-night programming really became apparent last year. She created Woo After Dark in collaboration with Bastian Redcross ’18 who had previously expressed an interest to Zimmer in event planning and program coordinating.
The two want Woo After Dark to be a student-driven group dedicated to providing substance-free spaces and activities on the weekends at Wooster.
In Redcross’s words, Woo After Dark is a “new student activities group that is geared towards enhancing the evening and weekend experience on campus. What we really want to do is bring out a new variety of events — things that happen past 9 p.m. We’re not going to do any of the traditional stuff or any of the stuff that’s already out there.”
The group hopes to produce more activities than are typically available on the weekends at Wooster.
These events are not meant to replace or detract from those that WAC or Common Grounds organize, but rather to provide students with a broader selection of options for substance-free activities and spaces on the weekends.
Woo After Dark’s activities would be recreational in nature, according to Zimmer, who added, “We already do Late Night at Movies 10 once a month. That will continue under Woo After Dark and we will probably continue Fridays and Board games but we would really like to see recreational things […] I’ve challenged [Redcross] to brainstorm ideas, and one thing he came up with was this Olympics idea.”
“It was a little bit more like taking back your childhood and doing fun things you did as a kid, like riding a tricycle through obstacle courses versus actually running a marathon,” added Zimmer.
In their recent ad in the Pot, Zimmer and Redcross also suggested events like a late night at the Scot Center or glow in the dark tag.
Both Zimmer and Redcross stressed that Woo After Dark hopes to bring in ideas from students across campus. They want to put on events that Wooster students will want to attend on weekends and cannot find in other places.
When asked about her feelings on Woo After Dark, Megan Murphy ’19, “It sounds awesome! This sounds like it will provide more options with more spaces for people to go.”
Woo After Dark is currently in the process of planning and brainstorming but hopes to be up and running in the spring of 2017 with all of its fun and creative programming. For more information, contact Julia Zimmer at JZimmer@wooster.edu.