The New Purchase Coordinators

By Alexander Toth

The Stood standing empty throughout the mid-day. Photo by Alexander Toth

The roles of Major Events Coordinator (MEC) and General Programming Coordinator (GPC) were free for the taking at the end of last semester. This semester, Purchase College welcomes the new Coordinators in the form of Kevin Marshall and Janny Valdiviesorivera. 

“Anything positive they want to do [with the Stood], I fully support,” said Matthew Bell, occasional frequenter of the Stood in an interview.

As coordinators, it will be their job to work together to help provide programming at The Stood and the campus – from something as small as the student flea market, to events as large as Culture Shock. 

“The Stood is great [...] it’s always a good time,” exclaimed Jordon Dixon, a junior, who has visited The Stood a handful times.

Kevin Marshall is a junior, who applied for the role of MEC around mid-way through the previous semester. An acquaintance of his recommended him to sign up for the role, because of his keen eye for fresh settings. According to Marshall, he has a good relationship with Mitchell Barcus, who was the previous MEC and the one to show Marshall the ropes. Outside his role as MEC, he is the vice-president of The Fash, the fashion club at Purchase, and he also wants to spearhead a lesser-known series of gatherings, known as “Culture Talk,” where artists can meet and mingle with one another in the TV Studio

Janny Valdiviesorivera is a senior, who applied for the role of GPC on her own accord, so she can improve upon herself. Valdiviesorivera further stated that while she believes that Emani Parry-Blakeman’s, her predecessor’s, unfortunate impeachment was tragic, she has no positive nor negative feelings about Parry-Blakeman, because they never had any type of interaction in the past. Besides becoming the new GPC, Valdiviesorivera is also known on campus as Latine Unidos’ President and one of the newest members of Afro E-board.

While both coordinators are new in title, they both had previous experiences helping on events. Marshall's first ever assistance for a school event was last year’s Culture Shock, and Valdiviesorivera first helped put together the previous Cafe Con Leche. Their work throughout the school year will go hand in hand.

It is the job of the GPC to book the event and its location, while the MEC organizes the event’s proceedings, theme, guests, and other such elements. Their work often overlaps and they often help with one another’s tasks. Even though the coordinators’ focus is Purchase events, both coordinators stated they’ll do the best they can if someone approaches them for wanting to make a private event, in or outside Purchase. Despite both being busy with senior projects or doing their utmost in their respective social circles, both noted that working as coordinators is very manageable, especially because all events are pre-planned since summer.

Besides The Stood, another area where Marshall plans to implement change is by combining Zombie-Prom with Hallo-Weekend. Valdiviesorivera backed his stance, by noting that this change is likely to occur.

When further questioned if they have any celebrity guests in mind for a future event, both coordinators paused. “I can’t really say, because I signed an NDA, but it’s definitely exciting, and definitely for the culture!” answered Valdiviesorivera in a Zoom interview.

 “Even though I really want to, I’m not allowed to say any names[...] All I can say is that one guest that may or may not be confirmed is a guitarist, who got famous on TikTok, and his name starts with an ‘M’,” said Marshall in a videochat interview.

As the newest coordinators, Marshall and Valdiviesorivera both want to bring fresh change to the status of The Stood. “We’ve got fencing and assault issues right now[...] The Stood used to be safer,” remarked Marshall. “I want the Stood to be a safe space again,” noted Marshall further.

Both coordinators also want more people to rent out The Stood for club use. “There’s [biases] towards certain clubs, so I want to be as neutral as possible, making sure that everyone gets accommodated, and everyone is comfortable and happy with their progress towards booking The Stood, and being able to actually do something with The Stood,” stated Valdiviesorivera.