Communiversity canceled, no plan to reschedule

The annual town-gown celebration of Communiversity, which transforms Nassau Street into a colorful fair, was cancelled Saturday due to inclement weather. There is no plan to reschedule, said Community Affairs Pam Hersh in an email, because students are entering a hectic time of year with final papers and exams.

Event coordinators decided to cancel most of the Communiversity activities at 7 a.m., Hersh said, before it became clear that the predicted heavy rains would taper off into light showers.

A few events continued as planned, Hersh said. The Office of Community and State Affairs arranged an architectural tour led by University Director of Physical Planning, entitled "The Changing Face of Princeton," which attracted 35 registrants.

"The tour began with a lecture at Frist and then we went outside, and in spite of the light rain, everyone seemed to enjoy the tidbits about Princeton's history and style," Hersh wrote. "Because of the excellent response, we hope to do something similar every year on the morning of Communiversity."

Karen Woodbridge, associate director of Community and State Affairs, worked with Janet Stern of the Arts Council of Princeton to determine whether the event should be cancelled, Hersh said, and Woodbridge was in continuous contact with the National Weather Service before making the decision.

A rain-date would be too hard to arrange for a number of factors, student chair Lauren Nichols '04 said. It would be difficult to convince students to commit to more than one day, she said, and rescheduling the event would require all event permits to be reissued. The logical rain date, Nichols said, would have been Sunday, but it is difficult to close Nassau Street on Sunday — to accommodate religious services, Nassau Street could not be closed until after 1 p.m.

Because the event was cancelled early in the day, not much money was lost.

"We encouraged organizations not to purchase food until the last possible moment, preferably the morning of the event," Nichols said.

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About $800 dollars of building services and stage costs were nonrefundable, she said.

It has been three years since it rained during Communiversity. In 1999, the event was not cancelled, but sound and electrical equipment could not be used. According to Nichols, individual performing groups cancelled, dampening the festive mood of the event.

"It was just as disappointing to cancel the event, as it would have been to hold it in the rain," Nichols said.

Nicols stressed that all parties involved — the town, students, and merchants — were disappointed. "But now we have next year to look forward to," she said.

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"The intent and spirit of Communiversity were there. It was not cancelled because we didn't want it to go on, and for that reason should have no strain on town-school relations," she said.