When Campus Couture members found out that Associated Students, Inc.’s Big Event would be held the same day as their annual fashion show, panic immediately set in.
“It was frustrating because we have been working on this since day one,” said Jules Catipon, head coordinator of Campus Couture. “It hurts to see all of those months of hard work and effort we’ve put in just crumble away.”
The Campus Couture show date, May 5, was reserved back in August. The organization announced the event in early April.
Last Friday, ASI announced that T-Pain’s performance would fall on the same day, with the doors for both events opening at 6 p.m.
According to Taylor Buhler-Scott, ASI associate director of programs and communications, ASI was given a list of potential dates for the Big Event by the athletic department at the beginning of the school year. The dates were based on practices, sports games and potential championships held in The Walter Pyramid.
“Even though it wasn’t announced until recently, that date has been on hold with the facility for a very long time,” said Buhler-Scott. “This year they (Campus Couture) decided to host their event in a different venue, so we didn’t connect about the details.”
Campus Couture has felt the impact of the scheduling conflict, with some volunteers and models dropping out after ASI’s announcement. Catipon also received several emails from students requesting refunds for their tickets.
“We’ve had a model drop out because she specifically said she would rather go to the concert,” said Catipon. “Our concern is just that it’s going to happen even more, especially with the show being days away.”
Campus Couture’s public relations coordinator Stephanie Hernandez wishes ASI was more transparent about the scheduled date of T-Pain’s performance. Hernandez and Catipon believe the conflict could have easily been prevented through proper communication.
“Did ASI just not think to check? Do they not care?” said Hernandez. “We worked so hard, and when we thought it [Big Event] was not even going to happen, it became the last thing to bring us down.”
The Campus Couture board members said that they do not feel supported by ASI due to this lack of communication.
“They [ASI] speak so much about helping support other student organizations, but when it comes to our event, we didn’t get that,” said Catipon. “Their promise was broken.”
Buhler-Scott said that ASI and Campus Couture discussed the scheduling conflict this week. The two organizations talked about how they would approach choosing dates for their events in the future.
“We talked to Campus Couture about maintaining communication from here on out, and then making sure that when they get the options for their event, and we get the options for ours, we can discuss,” said Buhler-Scott.
Hernandez and Catipon said that Campus Couture’s board has continued to heavily promote the fashion show in the days leading up to it. They have placed flyers around campus, done outreach on social media and spoken to classes about the fashion show.
“I don’t want our hard work to go unnoticed,” said Catipon. “I want people to get as excited about the fashion show as they are ASI’s Big Event of the year.”