Fordham students will now have the option of spending Friday nights with LC After Dark, a program designed to “engage students in alcohol-alternative programming,” according to an email announcement sent to student leaders by Dorothy Wenzel, director of the Office of Student Leadership and Community Development (OSLCD). According to her the initiative was driven primarily by the Office of Residential Life, as students from McKeon were looking for more evening and weekend programming.

The idea for the event series came from Camille Wilson, resident director for freshmen residents. “During my undergraduate studies, we had programming during the weekends and Friday nights, so it’s something I wanted to do here for a while,” she said.

The first event of the sort, held on Oct. 30, was a cereal and milk bar combined with a double feature of the  films “Hocus Pocus” and “Saw,.”

“We’re calling it a ‘soft launch’ just to test out the idea and how it would work in practice,” Wilson added. “We wanted to find a way to engage students on Friday nights, since there are a number of students who don’t go out and are looking for something to do.”

“We’re not talking about holding 500 person events, just creating a space where if you are new to the school or looking to make new friends on the weekend you can do that,” Wenzel said. “I loved the idea that Camille came up with, and with Kelsey [Thomas] getting promoted from graduate intern for programing to assistant direct of Alcohol and Other Drug Education (AODE), she can help us get involved with clubs.”

The initiative to get clubs involved in LC After Dark is still in its infancy. “We sent out the email notice to clubs and we need to speak more to clubs to get this really started … this is more of a dream we have right now, ”

“We really started talking about this in the summer, after clubs already submitted their budget packets. The hope is we can have an event every week in the spring,” Wilson said.

Clubs who are interested in LC After Dark would be able to receive special consideration for extra funding if an event is designated as a part of the series. “Ultimately, I don’t control the budget committee or how they vote, but we asked that clubs mark it down going forward and that it will be taken into consideration,” Wenzel said. On the other end, the Office of Residential Life will be providing more direct funding. According to Jenifer Campbell, director of Residential Life at Lincoln Center, clubs will be allocated 40 dollars per event in additional funding from the office for such events.

“We want to encourage clubs to do this event, so we’d provide seed money for the events as well,” Campbell added. “We want to encourage commuter students to take part too, to get guest passes, so they don’t feel like the event would be too late for them”

Since the Student Activities Budget Committee (SABC) meeting to discuss spring club budgets is still upcoming, it remains to be seen how many clubs will take part in the initiative.