SocComm, whose full name is The WPI Social Committee, a group of students committed to providing programming and entertainment to the campus community.
Structure[]
SocComm's structure has been changed many times to adapt to the growing campus community. The structure listed here is for historical reference.
Current Structure[]
SocComm is among the largest student organizations on campus. It's current structure, modified late 2010, comprises of the Big 3 (President, Vice-president and Treasurer), and 5 committees.
- Annual Events (AE): Annual Events is in charge of two major festivals each year: Winter Carnival, at the end of B term, and Quadfest in D term. These mega-events span several days and include events like inflatables, creative novelties, and campus-wide bingo. AE is also responsible in planning the NSO Welcome Party, and an Academic Advising Eve Event.
- Films: SocComm Films brings movies to campus every Saturday and Sunday, and occasionally has Movies On the Quad (MOTQ). The movies are free to campus and popcorn is also free.
- Music and Comedy Committee (MACC): This committee is responsible of bringing music and comedy-related acts onto campus. This committee was the result of merging the Major and Minor MACC Committees (MSEC and Pub committees we their precursors). MACC plans two annual Big Shows each year, one during Winter Carnival and one during Quadfest. MACC brings touring musicians or comedians to perform for the Big Show. More recent Big Shows featured Yellowcard, Motion City Soundtrack, Lupe Fiasco, Reel Big Fish, Cartel, Relient K, and Kevin Hart. In addition in planning annually occuring events like Indiefest and WPI's Got Talent, MACC brings bands and comedians to perform at the Goat's Head Restaurant. These acts usually are local/small artists and comedians.
- Membership & Marketing Committee (MMC): MMC was the result from the merge of the Advertising and Membership Committees in late 2010. This committee advertises the events planned by the other committees. The committee plans A Term and C Term recruitment events and SocComm^2 Events, which are a fun way for SocComm members to mingle.
- Special Events (SE): Special Events was derived from the Arts Committee. This committee does an assortment of events on and off-campus. They plan fun-themed events like Playdoh Day, Luau Day, and Bubble Day. They plan trips to various attractions off campus such as Six Flags NE, Blue Man Group, Duck Tours, etc.
Past Structure[]
SocComm's past structure comprised of an executive board, publicity committee, and six other committees, each focused on a particular type of program:
- Arts: SocComm Arts plans trips to see Broadway in Boston shows (e.g. Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King), brings Claytime (paint your own pottery) to campus and encourages the more colorful sides of engineers with activities like WPI Coloring Books and hemp bracelets. Their goal is to bring cultural events to the WPI community, or the WPI community to cultural events.
- Coffeehouse: Every Tuesday night, SocComm Coffeehouse brings artists to Riley Commons. Coffeehouse shows include acoustic, folk, jazz, poetry, and open mic nights. Recent musicians include Ellis Paul, Christopher Williams, Vance Gilbert and Ryan Montbleau. In the past, the coffeehouse comittee would do innovative things such as publishing the schedule for the entire term in one location, so people wouldn't have to dig through the lousy web calendar to figure out when a good show was coming up.
- Films: SocComm Films brings movies to campus every Sunday, and has other events like Oscar Parties and Movies On the Quad (MOTQ).
- Major & Special Events Committee (MSEC): SocComm MSEC is responsible for bringing nationally touring acts to campus. Recent performers have included Reel Big Fish, Bruce Bruce, OK Go, the Dropkick Murphys, Sugarcult, and Stephen Lynch. SocComm MSEC also plans smaller special events that don't fall under the umbrella of other programming committees like trips to Wright's Chicken Farm, dodgeball tournaments etc.
- Pub: SocComm Pub brings local and regional acts to campus ranging from spoken word to indie rock and hip hop. SocComm Pub is also responsible for the annual WPI music festival Indiefest (during Quadfest), a day long music-fest featuring all WPI bands. Recently, they've even been putting on killer dances including an 80's dance and a Junior High School Themed dance.
Trivia[]
SocComm's mascot, named "SocComm Al" is actually Albert Einstein. For a time, the group's motto was Einstein's theory of relativity, E=mc2 - Entertainment for the Mundane College Campus.
SocComm was officially established in 1968 comprised of what used to be Coffeehouse and the previous Arts commeittee. Pub joined in the late 70s, followed by MSEC in the 1980s, then films, publicity, and finally Annual Events in 2001. Tracing SocComm's roots can be considered one of the earliest organizations on campus. Coffeehouse was started in the early 1900s as Two Towers After Hours. Annual Events although the newest SocComm Committee, had been around as the ICAB, or Inter Campus Activities Board, programming Winter Carnival and QuadFest. Fact: It is not actually known what number Winter Carnival we are actually on. It was never kept track and back when AE joined SocComm an executive member picked a reasonable number and the numbers have been increased since then.
SocComm's current slogan is "Majoring in Fun Since 1968". Past slogans include "We Make Fun Happen", and "Come Play with Us" in 2005. Albert Einstein, or Al as he is more affectionately known as, is still the mascot and a painting hangs in the office.
SocComm nearly had a lawsuit on their hands when they used Bruce Smick Entertainment as a provider of large inflatables for one Quadfest in 2003. The operators are said to have been drunk and not been paying attention to the safety of the users. Since then SocComm has not used Bruce Smick Amusements, although other organizations on campus have.
SocComm is known for their slogans on the free t-shirts that are given away for Winter Carnival and Quadfest. These slogans are usually innuendos disguised just enough to be approved by administration. Some of the more notable slogans: picture of a rooster (cock) and a kitten (pussy) = coming of age SocComm: Come Sleep With Us (on pillow cases); $2 for 2 hours of pleasure (films); Have Fun in the Sun Get Lei'd in the Shade (WC7); Indulge your carnival pleasures (WC8); We'll debrief you (QF15, spies).
SocComm is known for their crazy games and stunts to just have fun or to publicize. Although no one has ever been seriously injured by any of these, the office now has a fully stocked first aid kit.