By Dale Miller
An ideal vp Events attends to the recreational lives of students on campus and the community. Arranging and promoting Bermuda Shorts Day, concerts, performances and other activities during the academic year is a large part of the portfolio. Other less event-related aspects include Safewalk and relations with residence students and other on-campus groups.
The first semester was a tough one for Students’ Union Vice-President Events Richard Bergen. Like a small-town girl moving to the big city, it took him a little while to lose the coveralls and pigtails-eight months to be exact.
Those first eight months saw a great deal of criticism directed Bergen’s way for his lack of new ideas and over-reliance on his commission, much of which was brought to light in a mid-term Gauntlet review. Fortunately for those students on campus who were willing to be entertained, Bergen pulled his socks up and addressed these critiques-which is more than you can say about others in the su.
This past semester saw a newer Bergen.
This was a man with at least two original and innovative ideas-the University of Calgary Campus Scavenger Hunt and the Residence Garage Sale. Coming from the depths of Bergen’s crafty mind, these events have garnered a good deal of interest and should have silenced his critics.
They didn’t, however, as some council members still feel he could have done more.
Another critique some on the council had was Bergen gave his commission too much leeway in pursuing their own interests. Some saw this as laziness on his behalf, but when you look at the results, his leniency has brought us events like the Beat Lounge and a well-trained vp Events-elect, so it can’t be all bad. This just reinforces Bergen’s insistence that he tried to be there for anyone who came his way throughout the year, a truly commendable goal.
On a less innovative but perhaps more tangible note, Bergen finally initiated the elusive and controversial science-link mural. This project has been passed from Events portfolio to Events portfolio for five years, so everyone is surely grateful for his efforts.
When you boil Bergen’s term as vp Events down to its fundamentals, you’ll probably find that his legacy lies in the way he interacted with his colleagues and the students. While it’s not something that is easily printed on a resume, it has certainly made this tumultuous year a little easier to bear.
Is his legacy of the same caliber as some past vp Events? Probably not, but at least he didn’t collapse the building.