Garrett Athman (The Beacon)
By Garrett Athman, Guest Commentary
Among a myriad of resources available to UP students, one of the most common, yet often overlooked, is ourself. Need help with your homework? Hit up the learning resource center, staffed by students. Is your new roommate stealing your Top Ramen and covering your face in whip cream while you sleep? Talk to your RA. Did you drop your Macbook down the elevator shaft of Mehling? Call your RCC (and P-Plant, because the elevator is clearly broken again.) Want to throw an awesome dance, concert, or guest speaker? You could do it yourself, but those $50 no-name speakers you bought off Craigslist probably won't cut it, and your friend of a friend won't look too professional when "pop" you blow a speaker and lose power. Rather, contact Pilot Audio & Lighting, an ASUP service run entirely by students.
Pilot Audio & Lighting (PAL), offers professional quality audio and lighting equipment and production service, as well as in-house DJ services to any UP club, group, department or otherwise UP-affiliated event. Formerly known as CPB Sound (in 2010), PAL was restructured, funded, and upgraded through the Spring 2011 Capital Improvement Fund (now known as the Major Project Fund). With a tuition's worth of industry standard audio and lighting equipment, PAL can handle any small to medium sized event, ranging from a guest speaker or dance, to a 12 piece band or multi-artist events, and can run 2 separate events concurrently.
Though it is student run, PAL technicians are experienced and trained specific to PAL equipment and procedures, putting safety first, and providing professionalism and quality results with equally as much concern.
Past and typical PAL events include CPB Coffeehouses, Pilot's After Dark events, Back Alley Block Party, Quadstock, Relay for Life, Luau, UP Jazz Festival, Villa Maria's Man Auction, International Club events, Junior Parents Weekend, various distinguished speakers, and most notably for our supplemental tech crew support for the 2012 Rock the Bluff, aka Macklemore Concert.
While not currently free, PAL charges absurdly affordable rates that are unparalleled by any other similar service, which go directly back to PAL for equipment maintenance and supplies, as well as wages.
They can't help you with your Ramen thief roommate, or help you revive your mangled macbook, or how to calculate the mass of the sun with only 4 apples, because they don't have to. Just like those other students, PAL is here for you, initially paid for by your student government fee, so don't be afraid to utilize the rare opportunity at hand.
Garrett Athman is a junior civil engineering and music double major. He can be reached at athman14@up.edu
