Top 5 Late Nite expenses
$74,000 for the end-of-the-year carnival
$50,000 for staffing
$17,400 for renting Cardinal Lanes
$10,000 for marketing and apparel
$5,000 for staff retreat(s)
• Late Nite has a budget of $355,952 collected from every on-campus student each semester.
• Students question whether Late Nite is worth the budget.
• Kay Bales, vice president for student affairs said the event gives students something positive to do on the weekend.
Late Nite, the campus entertainment series each Saturday night in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, receives $355,952 each year, almost entirely paid for by student fees. Each week the event sees an average of about 1,000 of Ball State’s about 21,000 students.
Bianca Polk, a student who is finance coordinator for Late Nite, said she thinks one of the main reasons few students attend is a lack of promotion.
Polk said her group has gotten away from promoting those events because of the mistaken belief that people already know what Late Nite is. She said talking with students has convinced her that more promotion is needed.
Late Nite, is a weekly entertainment and activity event hosted each Saturday at the Student Center. The activities have included, Djs, dancing, bowling, arts and crafts and movies offered as a safe and entertaining alternative for students looking for something to do on campus. Many colleges offer alcohol-free events for students amid concerns about the amount of alcohol consumed by college students.
Each Late Nite costs around $6,000. Maureen Warter, associate director for student center programs, said although the group could spend more money on promotion they instead use the funds for the event itself including: renting inflatables, food and renting Cardinal Lanes.
About 90 percent of the program’s budget, $318,400, comes from the Student Activities Board, which receives $9.23 from each on-campus student every semester said Randy Sollars, director of university budgets.
Another $18,000 is given to the Late Nite board by the Student Affair Office as a freshman fee.
Kay Bales, vice president for student affairs, said the freshman fee comes from an allotment made several years ago.
“At that time, it was determined that we would allocate that amount to Late Nite to support the Late Nite activities, because there are so many freshmen students that attend Late Nite,” Bales said.
About 14 percent or $50,000 is used to pay the 54 members of the Late Nite staff.
Bales said she thinks Late Nite is a good investment for the university, even if fewer students come than she would like.
“It gives our students an opportunity to remain on campus on the weekends and to have something fun and positive to do,” Bales said.
Freshman telecommunications major Daisy Crouch said she doesn’t go to Late Nite because there are other things she’d rather do.
“I don’t think they do anything quite that cool,” she said. “I feel like they don’t do anything that requires that much money.”
Lauren May, a sophomore animation major, said she was surprised by the size of the budget.
“Well they do do a lot of things with it,” May said. “But it seems like a lot of events are repeated, and they do the same things with different themes.”
But senior early childhood and special education major Megan Kalman said she goes to Late Nite every weekend if she can.
“My friends come here and we come with them,” Kalman said. “We’re here for the food and activities.”
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