By Maxine Friedman

The month-long, hybrid All Niter program, run by the Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, came to an end on Friday after experiencing issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prior to the pandemic, this annual program was held in the fall semester and students were able to participate in different activities as they walked from room to room in the Stamp Student Union. It gave students an opportunity to engage with others, whether at a late night party or a comedic performance. 

When 2021 started off largely virtual, student programs manager Laura Hood decided to wait until the second semester to start All Niter. 

“We knew that there was no way we could have in-person events in September when we were planning this. So we ultimately said, ‘Let’s just wait ‘till the spring – we’ll, kind of, know how to plan events or how to have events for the students,’” Hood said. 

Every Friday during the month of February, a mix of both in-person and virtual events were made available to students who wanted to join. 

“February usually is light on events because of the weather. There’s snow days and there’s cold weather, so people don’t want to leave their room – things like that. So, these events were simply just as a ‘Welcome back, get out of your room,’” Hood said.

The All Niter program was given an astrology theme for the Spring 2021 semester. “No matter where you are this semester, we’re all under the same sky,” it says on the program’s website.

On the first Friday of the month, an “Escape Room” event and a trivia night were offered consecutively online.

On Feb. 12, three events took place: a scavenger hunt, a Super Smash Bros. tournament, and a “Build-A-Bae” event, based on the Build-A-Bear Workshop franchise. 

Students were able to participate in the scavenger hunt in-person or virtually. As for the “Build-A-Bae” event, students were given the option to get the materials delivered, pick up the materials at Stamp or put the materials together in person. Five rooms were open to students, and only 10 people were allowed in a room at the time. The Super Smash Bros. event was held entirely online.

Then, circumstances changed and the rest of the scheduled events had to be reorganized. 

On Feb. 17, the UMD Police Department sent an alert out to students, warning them about inclement weather and notifying them that all in-person and online classes were canceled for that Thursday. 

Due to this unexpected announcement, the reverse tie-dye event scheduled for Feb. 19 was cancelled. Instead, students were able to pick up materials for the craft from Feb. 20 to Feb. 27. 

Following President Pines’ announcement on Feb. 20 that students on campus must sequester in place, future in-person All Niter events, such as another reverse tie-dye event, in-person escape room, canvas night and others, were officially postponed. 

On March 1, Hood sent out two announcements about the postponement of the canvas night and reverse tie-dye events. The canvas night event is available for students March 1–March 6 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The reverse tie-dye event will be available March 5th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Both events will allow students to either pick up materials at Stamp and go, or participate in-person. 

The only other event that was not postponed was a virtual non-profit fair. On Feb. 26, students had the opportunity to meet presidents and CEOs of local nonprofits looking for volunteers via Zoom. 

Five organizations presented at the fair: CAFY, A Wider Circle, WETATi, Crossroads Community Food Network and Greenbelt CARES. 

“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know exactly what to expect,” said Ambassador Margaret Dureke, founder and president of WETATi. “But, I knew I had to be a part of the session since students are our primary target. However, I was pleasantly surprised [at] the degree of professionalism and the amount of work the students put into it. I even think it is better than when they did it live prior to COVID-19.”  

According to their website, WETATi, which stands for We’re Empowered to Achieve The Impossible or Women Empowered to Achieve The impossible, is a non-profit network organization that teaches students about leadership and entrepreneurship. 

“I am very thankful for this opportunity and that it all stemmed from the All Niter fair,” Deena Karger, freshman kinesiology student said.   

Before the pandemic, the non-profit organizations could speak to students in September during the First Look Fair on McKeldin Mall. In 2019, 40 tables were reserved for non-profit organizations, according to Amy Engineer, the Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic Americorps VISTA at the Leadership Community Service-Learning office at UMD. 

“I thought the event went great, and I always relish opportunities to connect students with nonprofit leaders. In the future, I’m excited to do this event in-person where there will be more attendance and more organic engagement, like with the First Look Fair,” said Engineer.

The All Niter program also gave students the opportunity to watch movies with others virtually in honor of Black History Month. The four movies played were: The Wiz, Black Panther, Us and Akeelah and the Bee. The movies were shown via film distributor Swank Motion Pictures. 

“It’s probably super easy for us to cancel everything, but we know that this is not a great experience for you all,” Hood said. “So, I know that Stamp activities try very hard to make sure that a student is getting something from this year and some sort of entertainment or education in a fun way.”

Featured photo courtesy of The Stamp (The Adele H. Stamp Student Union) Facebook page.