In an effort to boost participation at both the student and community level, Simpson College has decided to announce the date of Campus Day this fall. In theory, this is a great step.

It is an event planner’s worst nightmare to attempt to drum up participation and hype for an event that only two people on campus know the actual date for. By establishing a firm date for the annual Campus Day festivities, the college will be able to openly work together to get participation levels up.

The organization of the event should be near flawless and as a whole, the event should run smoothly. Whether or not this happens remains to be seen.

However, Campus Day loses much of its mystique by announcing the day ahead of time. Part of the fun of the entire event was having it be a seemingly spontaneous affair with students being woken up with banging garbage cans and guttural screams of “Campus Day!”

In the past there has been some concern about leaking the announcement of Campus Day, thus allowing students a heads up on the cancellation of classes and adding an extended drinking day for those who wish to do so. This ultimately defeats the purpose of the community oriented Campus Day.

Announcing the date will certainly not help in reducing the number of legal consumers who attend the local watering hole or the non-legal consumers who will undoubtedly reak havoc in favorite on-campus locations for festivities on Campus Day Eve.

Although many would say that most students were aware of Campus Day in time to plan a spontaneous bash if they chose to do so, many students still were too worried about tests and papers due to partake in any activities without true confirmation of the event. These days are gone.

While, in theory, the announcement of Campus Day is an excellent way to increase participation through better publicity and better organization, it is likely to result in nothing more than more organized and widely attended Campus Day Eve parties across campus.