At the beginning of each year, the University Programs Council puts on a series of programs collectively referred to as Welcome Week. These events are produced with a hefty price tag and use roughly 50 percent of UPC’s yearly budget.
“Welcome Week is a celebration of the beginning of a new school year, one which strives to bring together the U.Va. community,” UPC Chair Ericajoy Oliverio, a fourth-year College student, said in an email statement.
Welcome Week events are designed to help introduce new students to Grounds and welcome back returning students.
The most costly event was the J. Cole concert at John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, Aug. 20 — the same night as Block Party, a non-University affiliated gathering on Wertland St.
While expenses for the event ran around $400,000, UPC only paid $184,800 for the concert. The Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs covered the rest.
The first event of the week — Amp Up the Arts — was held on Friday, Aug. 19, and cost $11,961.96. The event was attended by approximately 1,000 students and consisted of tie-dyeing, making flower crowns, henna tattooing and mug decorating.
Rotunda Sing, an annual University a capella concert on the Lawn, was another popular part of Welcome Week and saw a crowd of approximately 2,000 students. It cost $4,040.82 to put on.
Second-year College student Sarah Schneider said she enjoys the tradition of Rotunda Sing.
“It’s cool to see a lot of U.Va. students all in one place and I like the singing,” Schneider said. “Also, the Rotunda looks good.”
Second-year Engineering student Audrey Newman also attended and enjoyed Rotunda Sing, but said she did not feel like the other events put on during Welcome Week were designed to capture the interest of returning students.
“A lot of the other events seem to be geared toward first years,” Newman said. “This year I have friends to do other things with … It wasn’t necessary to go to such structured programming because I had alternatives.”
Second-year Engineering student Luke Masters also said he did not attend the events and instead focused on “settling into second-year life as well as looking for a job.”
However, first-year students typically do attend many of the events. Jieru Shi, a first-year College student, attended four of the six programs.
“I thought attending [the events] would be a great way to explore and get used to U.Va. during my first week here,” Shi said. “The events also allowed me to have something to do during the first week, since being somewhere new can be overwhelming.”
Other events that week included First Year Movie Night, a performance by comedian Mike Birbiglia, hypnotist Tom Deluca and Wahoo Welcome.
First Year Movie Night cost a total of $773.02 and was attended by roughly 400 students. The official expenditures and attendance for Wahoo Welcome were unavailable from UPC.
“Our only numbers are approximations/estimations since we have no way of effectively tracking attendance numbers at such large scale events,” Oliverio said. “The signature events have equitable attendance rates year to year. The concert obviously saw a huge spike in attendance because we had a more popular artist and a larger venue.”
UPC was able to spend $39,480.45 on Mike Birbiglia’s performance due to a rollover in the comedy committee’s budget, Oliverio said. All 800 free tickets for the show were claimed.
Tom Deluca’s recurring hypnotics show cost $7,230.10.
“Our programs are invaluable to new students who are looking to make connections, and they are important traditions for returning students who want to reunite with their friends after a summer apart,” Oliverio said. “That mission of fostering connections within the U.Va. community is, in my opinion, incredibly worthwhile, and I think our attendance rates and audience feedback each year continue to support that.”
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