Due to students complaining about a lack of activities going on around campus on weekends, a program known as Stormy Nights was born.

The students’ cries have been heard, according to Rich Ramos, assistant dean of students.

Stormy Nights plans to provide a program that will cater to the needs of the diverse student body that Simpson College has. The steering committee behind Stormy Nights is looking at introducing a variety of programs that covers all forms of entertainment and fun.

Stormy Nights has been very well received by many Simpson students.

“When I first heard of the program, I thought it was going to be one of those boring programs that end up failing. But, having gone to some of Stormy Nights events such as movie night and the breakfast in Pfeiffer, which saved me a lot of money, I think the program will be around for quite some time,” says junior Maureen McCaffrey.

One of the most successful programs provided by Stormy Nights thus far is the late-night breakfast. Sept. 6, they had about 101 people go through the line. Breakfast is free for the first 50 people, then after that it costs $ to go through the line.

“For non-Simpson students, we charge $5 because the money comes from student activity fees and we want Simpson students to benefit from those funds,” said Ramos.

Funding for Stormy Nights solely comes from Student Senate for right now, but they are looking at other sources as well.

Depending on the budget, Stormy Nights plans on giving more programs to make the campus somewhat of a one-stop terminal, where you find everything.

“We are also very open to ideas from students and will try to incorporate those into the program,” said Ramos. They are also looking at adding some recreational activities and are also hoping to get faculty and staff involved in these activities, just to increase the interaction between students and faculty/staff.

Late-night programming like this has been around in other colleges and Universities to keep students from leaving campus on weekends. University of West Virginia’s has run for seven years and had great success. Their’s is a $1 million program and it is successful because they have a wide variety of activities that run from Thursday to Sunday, ranging from entertainment to academics.