Though this year’s Senior Class Council may seem behind schedule in planning events for the end of the semester, they are on track and confident that seniors will be able to enjoy all of the traditional senior events.

The three main tasks of the Senior Class Council for each year have historically been selling senior class sweatshirts, organizing the end-of-semester Bar Crawl event and fund raising for the senior class gift.

“This year, we did get a little late start, but sweatshirts are already ordered and they were already designed,” said Evelyn Vazquez, president of the Council. “They will be back here sometime next week or a week after, and then most seniors will get their sweatshirts. If we table, seniors will be able to pick their sweatshirts then.”

Letters advertising the sale of the sweatshirts were sent to the homes of all Binghamton University seniors, and according to Vazquez, the Council has received at least 150 orders from parents of seniors so far. In addition, seniors will be able to purchase the sweatshirts after they arrive, when the Council will have a tabling session in the Old University Union to sell them.

According to Vazquez, the Council relies on money raised from the sale of sweatshirts to plan other events.

“The thing is the Senior Class Council has a small budget to work with and with that budget we have to plan all of the events and pay for the sweatshirts,” Vazquez said. “It is a little bit of a difficult process, but the Senior Class Council works pretty efficiently together. It is just in limbo because we need funds from seniors to be able to purchase things.”

One of the more popular events planned by the Council is the annual Bar Crawl, which occurs during finals week of the spring semester and involves students travelling to multiple bars on State Street to take advantage of drink specials offered to those possessing a special Bar Crawl mug, which the Senior Class Council sells.

Vazquez said that the mugs for the event have been ordered and will be available for purchase at Spring Fling, which will take place on April 29. Bar Crawl itself is slotted for May 18, the Thursday of finals week.

Though Vazquez said the Council hopes to be able to plan some extra events, such as the senior class picnic which was added by last year’s Council to the roster of senior activities, everything depends on the amount of money raised from the students.

“We are trying to plan some extra events, but we needed the initial budget to order the sweatshirts,” she said. “We are just waiting for senior participation.”

The Council also relies on the money raised from the sale of sweatshirts and Bar Crawl mugs, in addition to donations raised from the families of seniors, to fund the senior class gift which each class presents to the University.

“We work with the Telefund committee to call parents and seniors and see if they’d like to donate $20.06 for each student commemorating the year of their graduation,” Vazquez said.

For this year’s gift, the Council is planning to aid in the renovation of the University Peace Quad, adding benches to the area outside the New University Union and working on the landscape surrounding the New Union and Fine Arts building.

“It will be really nice to renovate the Peace Quad and that is a very prominent area because the Union has a lot of student activities, so it will be a great place to have a senior gift for 2006,” Vazquez said.

Michael Smyth, Student Association president and the person responsible for choosing the members of the Senior Class Council, is confident about the Council’s activities and choice of class gift.

“We’re making sure we go out with a bang,” he said.

Any seniors interested in ordering class sweatshirts can send an e-mail to pr@sa.binghamton.edu.