Baruch College’s Undergraduate Student Government hosted a Winter Wonderland Formal on Feb. 9 in the multipurpose room where they served tacos and DJ Tyler provided music for the event.

USG President Laiba Hussain and Vice President of Campus Affairs Karen Guanga said they wanted to give students the opportunity to make college memories.

“I feel like the theme of a Winter Dance or Winter Formal was something that a lot of people weren’t able to experience. Due to the pandemic, a lot of school activities were cut, so we wanted to mimic a similar event in the sense that we’re returning a similar experience back to our students,” Hussain said.

Guanga said that the formal is part of a larger effort to revive in-person events on campus.

“We hope we bring back more dances and events like this because we’ve been gone for two years and this is the first event back to life,” she said.

Guanga said preparations started over a month ago.

“I’ve been talking about it since winter break, so I was already talking to vendors for tacos… But it was honestly a one-week decoration process,” she said.

Hussain and Guanga said USG helped them find a community on campus. They hoped that creating a more vibrant campus life would help other students reconnect after the disruption of COVID-19.

“I do feel like it’s definitely something that’s been overemphasized after the pandemic because we were in an isolated state and weren’t able to socialize as much, especially for our students that were online fully,” Hussain said. “It can be hard to open up and talk to people after it’s been so out of the ordinary for so long.”

The formal, held from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., was advertised a week before on USG’s Instagram page with a link to RSVP for the event.

USG hired catering for the event and Vice Chair Kayla Hualpa helped decorate the multipurpose room.

Hussain said she facilitated the communications needed for the event and provided support throughout the planning process.

“I did help Karen with pushing forward a lot of the backend work that we do for events. This can vary from contacting vendors to bid forms. The school follows a purchase-order system in terms of getting payment to our vendors, and a lot of that is done in terms of communication with Student Life,” she said. “I assisted in expediting the paperwork for this and with getting Karen connected with the right people.”

The taco table drew long lines and the music got students onto the dance floor.

The theme of the event was blue and white, and the decorations and attire reflected the intended atmosphere. All USG members who supervised the event wore blue and white outfits.

A member of the USG took polaroid pictures of anyone who dressed up in a fun costume or came with their friends to help them capture the experience.

Editor’s Note: The print edition of this article incorrectly reported that Kayla Aaron had assisted with decorations. This version correctly reflects that Kayla Hualpa was the USG Vice Chair mentioned.