Tulane University Freeman School BLOG

Aaron’s opinion on the state of Tulane’s Thursday night social scene has caused a little ruckus among the organizers of the TNS events.

James, the Graduate Business Council Vice President of Student Affairs, was kind enough to respond with the following information and an invite for all local readers of this blog to join us this Thursday at our next outing.

James writes:
In response to the comical, yet uninformed article regarding Thursday Night Socials (or TNS as they are apparently called), I would like to address a few of the concerns and announce the new protocol for Thursday Night Socials that Mike Holland (Freeman School President), Joel Yarmon and I discussed a few days ago.

Let me begin by saying that as Graduate Business Council Vice President of Student Affairs (Social Chair), my opinion on Thursday Night Socials is that they ARE and SHOULD BE impromptu get-togethers and NOT networking events. If they were networking events they would be hosted by the Career Development Chair and would have a completely different intention.

Unfortunately, it is a Tulane policy that prohibits emails being sent out using the Outlook exchange to the student body advertising “alcohol” (beer, cocktails, shots, etc.) or a specific locale’s intent (bar!). So, when I send my emails out, I expect that graduate level students can put 2 and 2 together and get 4. However, I have been wrong. Beginning this week, I will be sending out Thursday Night Social emails and providing a link to the Freeman blog where you can read about the details of the “bar” for that Thursday night. I will list any specials that we have arranged.

This is kind of ironic though; people complain that there are no specials or free drinks at the Thursday Night Socials. But, some people want to go to more “upscale bars” (for those of you who have yet to leave Ms. Maes or The Boot, upscale bars charge more money…sometimes it can be $5 for a beer and $9 for a cocktail.) I do not feel that the majority of the Freeman school students would enjoy Thursday Night Socials if their bar tab every Thursday was $75.

Also, I agree that the attendance for the Thursday Night Socials is always poor. I went to every social last year and never saw more than 20-25 people at any event out of 150-175 people who receive the email. I would like to encourage ALL of you to attend at least one. It may not always be convenient to attend the Thursday Night Socials (people are married, people have kids, people are in class, people have existing and recurring Thursday night plans that do not involve Tulane, etc.), but it would be nice to see some new faces and believe it or not, get to know your classmates outside of GW1 or GW2.

Aaron, please accept this invitation to be my “Deputy Social Chair”. Your responsibility will be to assist me with finding bars that the Freeman GRADUATE students collectively will enjoy. I have continually asked the student body for recommendations and have received only one response this year. I think that your commitment to the Thursday Night Socials will make these better and I look forward to your help. Thanks!

James
GBC Vice President, Student Affairs
james@tulanemba.org

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