SU Report Card: VP events Alex Vyskocil

By Chris Beauchamp

Alex Vyskocil, self described VP events and good times, brought a number of good ideas and new events to the U of C over the course of his two terms. Not surprisingly perhaps, but a little unfortunate for students, Vyskocil has run out of steam this close to the end of it all.

Vyskocil’s biggest legacy is the creation of That Empty Space. Providing students with a Friday afternoon place to wind-down, complete with live music and cheap beer was a brilliant idea, and Vyskocil should be commended for it. This year, he has kept the thing running smoothly, and extended use of the space to other events like club bookings and frat meet-and-greets.

He’s also partly to thank for beefing up SU presence at U of C 101. The change made the SU session mandatory and included new inter-faculty games to crank up student involvement a bit. Both were good ideas to promote the SU and school spirit with first-year students.

Concert bookings and revenue have never been higher for the SU and Vyskocil has diversified event content by bringing speakers like Joel Bakan and Sue Johanson.

He’s also kept most of his commissioners on track, although more as a father figure, content to let events take care of themselves whenever possible. This isn’t a bad thing until stuff actual falls apart like this year’s sexual awareness week. Vyskocil admits he could have kept a closer watch on bookings for the event, rather than leave it up to a commissioner.

Other commissioner projects like Enviro-palooza have come off smoothly, and Vyskocil’s hands-off management approach this year could be considered evolutionary rather than lazy.

All things considered, Vyskocil has done an awesome job with the events portfolio and built a well-oiled machine that can run with little input from the top–at least it has for the last few months.