IMU Late Night is every Friday from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Last Friday, programs included free games at Bowling and Billiards, comedy performances and a live DJ from WIUX Music.
The event was in collaboration with Union Board to provide more consistent late night programming.
“This semester, we decided to focus on more brand consistency,” said Travis Stevens, director of the Late Night committee for Union Board. “We kind of took these two series, this idea for the IMU Late Night and the IU After Dark, to incorporate it into one consistent program,”
Stevens said Union Board’s program IU After Dark has become Big Friday, a larger event held once a month that will supplement IMU Late Night. He said the Late Night committee is primarily in charge of Big Fridays.
For IMU Late Night, the committee provides volunteers to help run the event and runs the craft table, Stevens said.
“Union Board’s part, for the Late Night committee, is to help brainstorm and to plan and to come up with the more creative side of it,” Stevens said. “Providing that student aspect, like that student perspective.”
Ryan Clemons, the game center manager at the IMU, said he considered the first IMU Late Night to be a success.
Before leaving the event at 1 a.m., he said their student count was ?around 700.
They gave out 466 free games of bowling Friday night and 33 hours of billiard play, Clemons said.
With the abundance of traffic to Bowling and Billiards during the event, Clemons said he hopes students recognize it beyond Friday nights.
“The hope is that we expose ourselves to new students and they find the space exciting and ?engaging,” he said.
Chris Gray, resident district manager of IMU Dining Services, said the Burger King hours were extended in an effort to offer late-night dining options during the programming.
He said Burger King was decided upon because of its menu’s appeal to students’ varied tastes.
“It has the widest variety of menu options available,” he said. “It just made sense.”
About 135 people purchased something from Burger King, which was ?acceptable, Gray said.
Although they would like to have more success, the reason for keeping Burger King open late is mainly to give students a dining option within the Union, he said.
On Big Fridays, Gray said the menu could be extended to more of the Commons restaurants and Starbucks.
“The big event may encompass both floors,” ?he said.
Although he considered it successful, Clemons said there is more progress to come. He said he hopes to have more advanced marketing for the programming each Friday.
“We feel like it’s something if we continue to run, it’ll continue to pick up momentum,” Clemons said.
Stevens said the Late Night committee wants to assess what went well or what did not and make changes for the future.
“Whenever you start something new, you never really know how it’s going to go,” Stevens said, “So you have to test it and tweak it.”
