For many students with diverse cultural backgrounds, Chaminade University of Honolulu is a place to call home. Each year, the college campus hosts an annual event celebrating different cultural traditions through dance.
The Pacific Island Rim (PIR) ceremony is an event where established clubs, like the Tahitian and Hawaiian club, get the opportunity to showcase and share their customs for an audience of friends and family.
The OSAL (Office of Student Activities and Leadership) sponsored event opened with live entertainment from first place “Open Mic” winners who charmed judges in the preliminary song auditions. Although it was a perfect opportunity for talented young students to advertise their musical ability, a congregation of empty seats welcomed the opening entertainment.
As the night proceeded, seats became occupied with friends and family of the performers. However, the overall audience turnout was not nearly the number of people who had attended previous performance years. The spiral of silence from the crowd subtly a definite change that could be done for next performance years.
PIR is a positively anticipated event that many students look forward to. For several semesters however, varying factors have played a significant role in the decline of audience turn out special events such as PIR.
Student participation has always been considered as the fuel that supports the fire of school spirit. For reoccurring new semesters the advertisement for campus events has slowed its pace.
Lack of public announcement results in less and less student participation. Better PR planning could definitely result in internal and external audience attendance.
As mentioned prior, OSAL took the time to share the talents of several young students at the opening of the PIR event. It was an opportunity for Chaminade to shine light on young, aspiring scholars.
Considering the spectacular performance from the students, there was unfortunately an incredibly long amount of dead air that could have easily been filled with more musical performances other than student talent.