There have been a couple of times when students will attend special events in the Memorial Student Center, glance down at the program and see that the event starts at 7 o’clock, but by the time they look down at their cell phone it says 8:35 and not one person has been seen on stage.
The DJ has played an album and not a curtain has been drawn or a stream of light has been directed to anyone’s attention. Why can’t black people be on time?
“If I was going to any other school they would have started already, I think it’s because of poor organizing and slacking off at the last minute,” said an anonymous student.
When it comes to planning events (and yes, student organizations take notes) one must start at the earliest in planning, starting with who’s going to be in charge of what and making sure the deadline set is met. It’s not easy to come down on people about delivering things in a timely manner especially when they’re your peers, but when it comes to being a leader, one must be in charge and possess strong leadership skills in being about business punctually.
Another lesson in learning is organization and structure of programming. Nothing should be discussed at the last minute unless it’s what you’re going to wear when you present. It may be difficult to get everyone to cooperate, but that’s when choosing your coordinators wisely comes into play. If you choose dependable people you’re going to get dependable results. The director must know everything down to the “T” of who, what, when, and where he or she wants everything done in order.
To not be on time leaves the audience irritated, frustrated, and ready to walk out at any given moment. Students are very busy with school, work, or other extracurricular activities they have going on in the next hour. Why waste their time? Why lie and say 7 p.m. but it’s not jumping off until 9 p.m? Why bring out some wack standby to stall the audience and ask dumb questions to confirm where everybody is from?
I guess one of these days when we enter the real world and have careers we’ll learn that the early bird gets the worm, being 15 minutes early can prepare you, but 15 minutes late leaves you outside. Time is like money, it’s short, hard to manage, and once you get it’s gone, so tell me student body, how will you spend it?