Every year, Lakeside holds three school dances: Homecoming, Winter Ball, and Spring Fling. Upon entry, however, Lakeside students only see the $17+ price tag charged to their student ID cards, but not the creativity, resourcefulness, and hard work that goes on behind the scenes. This begs the question: how much money goes into hosting school dances, and how does that compare with the money that students spend? Seeking an answer, Tatler asked Mr. Bonar and Stud Gov representatives to walk through the funding of this year’s Homecoming. 

The first stop: decorations. As students enter the dance, they can instantly spot the balloons, fairy lights, garlands, and lanterns strung upon the walls, decked out in glitter and matching the theme to a T, all of which cost Stud Gov around $250. But how does Stud Gov decide which decorations to pick and which to skip? “We go to [Stud Gov advisors] Mr. Bonar and Dr. Russell with a list of ideas first. Then, we go through each of the items and debate as a group whether or not we need them. There’s no set budget, but we try to look at how much we spent last year and stay within that range,” said Student Government representative Mesgana A. ’28. Mr. Bonar elaborated on this, saying, “What [the administration] did is have [Student Government] put everything down, then we talk through each item and ask, ‘Well, why do you want to use this? What’s the purpose of this? How much [total] money are we spending out of that? How much of this is stuff that’s going to be single-use, and how much is this going to be something we can reuse later?’”

This year, less was spent on decorations than in the past. Why? Mr. Bonar explains that Homecoming this year was optimized not to cut costs and jeopardize the fun, but more to prevent unnecessary spending. Part of that, Mesgana comments, was that “a lot of resourcefulness went into Homecoming. For example, Grace made the banners and posters, and I borrowed my friend’s Polaroid camera [to replace the live photo booth last year] … At the moment, I was pretty mad because I thought Lakeside was holding back, but I’m kind of grateful because it all worked out in the end, and I realized we didn’t really need the extra decorations anyway.” Dr. Russell reinforced this, saying, “I saw Student Government operate last year for the first time; I have a lot of intention to help the group this year operate with sustainability and reuse in mind. To that end, we are trying to coordinate across Student Government and other resources across campus so that things like decor can be reused for events.” These resources include supplies in the Moore Hall closet, which is shared by Stud Gov, SALT, service learning, SAC, and the student center, as well as supplies in the Testing Center, both of which are resources available to students who need them.

Next stop: food. This year, students were greeted with two tables containing an assortment of food and snacks. From candy to sodas to chips to fruit to cookies provided by SAGE, Stud Gov spent around $200 on food this year. Although there was leftover food, Student Government representative Timothy D. ’27 said most of it was donated to a soup kitchen to prevent food waste. 

Third stop: the DJ. The DJ was controversial, receiving several negative reviews in the Tatler poll and some grumbles in the hallways. Though students complain about the DJ every year, there’s a reason why this year was different: Lakeside changed its DJ. “The DJ that we had before…charged something closer to, like, $1200-$1,300. And over the years, his charges just started going up, up, up. And last year it ended up being about $2,000 just for DJ services,” Mr. Bonar said. Stud Gov collectively recognized that the DJ’s pricing was too high relative to his services and decided to find a new one, which cost only $900 for the entire school dance. However, according to Timothy D. ’27, Mr. Bonar found the DJ without any of their input. In response to student backlash, Mr. Bonar said, “After [hosting school dances] for years and years and years, I’ve realized people are always very critical of the DJ, and so I’m a little reluctant to keep finding another DJ, but it’s not that hard of a thing to do.” When asked what Lakeside students could do to make this experience better, Mr. Bonar answered, “We could just offer — and this is what I initially told Student Government — the DJ feedback. [We could even] easily just give the DJ a playlist for him to play at the dance.” 

An alternative to paying for a professional DJ is to have student DJs, which was pushed for by some Lakeside students in the Tatler poll. However, Mr. Bonar remarked on this, saying, “It’s very hit and miss. Sometimes it’s done very well, and sometimes it’s done very poorly. Sometimes students sign up and think that it’d be a really fun thing to do, but then they also don’t realize that now they’re working the whole dance rather than hanging out with friends and having fun. And I don’t like the idea of pulling someone away from the dance to be working rather than just enjoying themselves.”  On top of this, Mr. Bonar notes that other than just paying the DJ to play music, they also bring their equipment, which includes lighting. If Lakeside had a student DJ, that student likely wouldn’t have access to this equipment, which means Stud Gov would have to pay extra to rent this equipment.

Last stop, but not least: the miscellaneous items that elevate the experience. The bulk of this section was the cost of Polaroid film. The rolls of Polaroid film alone cost $285, and combined with the purple curtain for the booth backdrop, the miscellaneous items category totaled $343, which brings Lakeside’s homecoming cost to around $1700, and $800 without the DJ. 

So, how much did Student Government profit from this dance? In total, around 400 people attended this dance, which brings the total profit to $5100. This is pretty significant in comparison to the expenditure, which prompts the question: what happens to this money and what is it used for? According to Mr. Bonar, it goes back to the students. Stud Gov uses the profits to fund clubs, May Day, spirit boosters, and other activities.

So, as Winter Ball creeps around the corner, Tatler hopes students have a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes.