Spring Fling gives students professional experience

Ian C. Meyer Arizona Daily Wildcat Keith Henson, Spring Fling's executive director

And, behind the scenes, it will provide and already has provided professional experience for the student volunteers who have worked for the past year to organize the event.

Spring Fling's marketing director, Elizabeth Millunchick, is enrolled in a persuasion class, but has learned more about the art of persuasion outside the classroom.

"The biggest part of my job is to persuade people to come to Spring Fling and sponsor Spring Fling," said Millunchick, a communication senior.

The carnival, in its 23rd year, is a non-profit event organized by University of Arizona students every year to raise money for clubs and organizations, Millunchick stated in a press release she wrote as part of her job as marketing director.

Spring Fling runs Thursday through Sunday on the McKale lawn. Thursday and Friday, the carnival will be open from 4 p.m. to midnight. Saturday, the hours will be noon to midnight, and Sunday, the carnival will be open from noon to 6 p.m.

As Millunchick and the 3,000 students who volunteer to work on the carnival have discovered, Spring Fling also provides an opportunity to gain working experience in business, marketing and communication.

Millunchick said the carnival is a "giant classroom" which parallels what she is learning in class.

"I took an argumentation class last semester. In it you learn how to logically structure an argument and back up anything you say with research and data," she said.

Millunchick said she used persuasion and argumentation skills when she negotiated contracts last semester with media outlets such as radio stations, KMSB Channel 11 and local newspapers.

Millunchick said she is graduating in August and plans to work for a year before graduate school.

"Working on Spring Fling has made me really get focused on what I want to do and how I want to do it," she said.

Millunchick said working for Spring Fling, which she called a full blown industry event, keeps her in the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for classes.

Keith Henson, Spring Fling's executive director, agreed. He puts in 50 hours a week working on the carnival, which is the eighth-largest event in Tucson, as reported by Inside Tucson Business.

Henson said his experience in Spring Fling overlaps what he is learning in his business writing class.

"Everything in that class I've done a hundred times over the past year," Henson said.

ASUA adviser Jim Drnek said running the carnival helps students with their budgeting skills in addition to organization, communication and inter-personal skills.

"They need to be able to maintain and make a budget. They haven't been really successful at that in the past, but it hasn't always been their fault," Drnek said.

Drnek and Henson said bad weather was one of the main reasons why last year's carnival, which brought in 29,000 people over four days, spent $10,800 more than it earned in revenues.

Gail Tanner, accountant for ASUA, said that even when Spring Fling revenues are in the red, the carnival looks like it breaks even on paper because ASUA covers the losses.

Tanner said Spring Fling has lost rather than gained money for the last seven years.

Henson said that as long as the weather is good, he expects Spring Fling to make a profit this year. If Spring Fling turns a profit, the money will go either to Spring Fling's budget for next year or to ASUA.

This year's overhead for Spring Fling is $190,000, down $20,000 from last year.

Henson said the focus on local bands and having music all four days also kept the overhead down and will hopefully increase revenues.

The carnival spent $13,000 for entertainment for next week's carnival, $35,000 less than it did last year when it brought in Pauly Shore, Dada and Fishbone as big name entertainment.

"Instead of paying one band a lot of money we want a music fest environment. We'll have music playing continually, with the most popular bands on Saturday," Henson said.

Various clubs and organizations run the food, game and entertainment booths and retain 89 percent of their profits, while Spring Fling receives 11 percent to cover operating costs.

"We pay the clubs first so they have the most profit," Henson said.

Last year, clubs generated $73,144 in revenue through Spring Fling.

Another change designed to bring in more money are Student Paks, which are being sold at the Student Union U-Mart and Park Student Union, Henson said.

For $15, students can get admission, 20 script for food and entertainment and two ride coupons - a savings of $7 off individual prices.

Student admission prices are $4 while the 20 food script are sold for $10. Prices for rides vary.

The carnival also offers Family Paks and $15 wristbands pre-sold at Fry's Food and Drug stores. Wristbands cost $18 at the gate and include admission and unlimited rides.

The wristbands are only valid on Thursday, the first day of the carnival.