The DePauw sat down with senior Ben Kusber, one of the co-chairs for Little 5 to talk about how Little 5 is planned and what goes into preparing for a campus wide event. Kusber has been a co-chair for the event since his sophomore year.
The DePauw (TDP): What goes into planning Little 5?
Ben Kusber (BK): A lot of organization and communication regarding students, staff, administration and the City of Greencastle. In order for the race to happen, we have to get it officially closed through the city and present to the city council to get that closed. We have to do safety trainings with potential riders with our adviser Kent Menzel. We have to do all of the planning committee meetings; getting each day prepared using our student committee members to get car stuff, Little 5K, time trials, dodgeball tournament for Timmy Global Health, the street sprints and the criterium races to happen. So a lot of moving parts.
TDP: When do you guys start planning for it?
BK: In the fall. We always have to submit our budget in the fall for the upcoming year. Normally the orgs have to do it each semester, but since we’re only in the spring we only have to worry about it in the fall. So that’s when the first base planning goes in, which is just getting the budget approved, if anything comes up unexpectedly then we know to request event by event funding. We start more heavily planning the first week of school in the second semester. That’s when we lock down safety meeting dates and scratch race dates for our riders. About two to three weeks after that, depending on how quickly everyone on the steering committee gets back to us, we’ll have our first meeting as a steering committee and start planning.
TDP: Have you made any changes from last year’s Little 5 to this year’s Little 5?
BK: The only thing that we technically changed is going back to more of the dodgeball tournament instead of doing a tricycle race. Last year we attempted to do a tricycle race, but just to be on the safe side in case of inclement weather, we just wanted to do a dodgeball tournament straight away.
TDP: What have you done to prepare the race track for this weekend?
BK: Everything like that gets done through the city. If we do have any expressed concerns we’ll mention that to the city but we don’t handle that on our end. I do know that big potholes have been fixed from what I understand.
TDP: There has been a lot happening on campus recently. Do you plan on doing anything during the events of Little 5?
BK: In light of recent events on campus, we want to express our support for all students and especially with this being a campus wide event, we want all students to feel safe and comfortable to come. Little 5’s main priority is safety, whether that be for our riders or the spectators. We want to remind students that everyone is welcome at all Little 5 events. Public Safety and other security staff will be present at all events to ensure the safety of individuals, whether spectators or riders, will be achieved.