For O-Week 2015, the College Programming Office (CPO) decided to eliminate the reception at the John Hancock building and enhance the Museum of Science and Industry Night experience in order to cut costs.

Some of the changes made to MSI Night included more food options, a DJ, and a more festive atmosphere overall.

These changes occurred due to a need to trim excess spending, and the CPO saw holding the John Hancock Reception and the MSI Night back-to-back as excessive.

“The receptions at the MSI are long-standing College traditions, occurring both during Orientation Week and Senior Week and serving as bookends to the College student experience. While we’ve enjoyed the reception at John Hancock for the last several years, the increasing costs for catering, space rental, and transportation make such an investment cost-prohibitive,” wrote Régine Desruisseaux, Assistant Dean of Students in the College and Director of College Programming, in an email to The Maroon.

“I don’t think I noticed there was a DJ or any of that,” said first-year Sarah Choe. However, she thought the event was fun and enjoyed exploring the exhibits. In regards to the enhanced food choices, Sarah said that she thoroughly enjoyed the mac and cheese bites.

These changes came in addition to changes in the University’s sexual assault education programming, now entitled UMatter. An article about UMatter will be published in The Maroon next week.