Friday, Feb. 7, the College of William and Mary’s AMP and Student Assembly worked in tandem to host the Green and Gold Bash, a night of revelry in celebration of the 332nd anniversary of the College’s charter. Sadler Center’s Chesapeake room was turned into a bustling event hall with a DJ booth and dance floor along with large spreads of free food and a wide array of activities aimed at creating a shared space for students to celebrate their alma mater.
“When people think Charter Day, they obviously think William and Mary’s birthday, but sometimes it’s difficult to connect with that as a student,” AMP Executive Director Chloe Jones ’25 said. “We want this to be somewhere people can connect with and uplift each other while being able to get dressed up with their friends and look amazing. It’s a time for connection and community building.”
To achieve this sense of community building, AMP and SA set up a spectrum of entertainment including a dance room with loud pop hits, a Fritos taco bar, green and gold kettle corn and a more mellow craft area filled with a slew of souvenirs for students to remember the celebration by.
“We booked a few vendors, including a caricature artist and an airbrush artist making hats and pennants with people’s names on them,” Jones said. “We also have sand art, which is a little Charter Day template that people can color in with different colors of sand.”
Besides crafts, students could take advantage of a range of other activities while at the celebration.
“The photo booth was lots of fun,” Marissa Durham ’28 said. “They had lots of cute props and glasses to pose with.”
Lauren MacDonnell ’28, on the other hand, chose to spend her time near the DJ booth with its booming speakers and disco lights.
“My favorite part has probably been tearing it up on the dance floor,” MacDonnell said. “My friend Julie and I have been going to Salsa Club, so we whipped out a couple salsa moves while out there.”
According to Durham, the vast amount of activities at Green and Gold Bash meant there was something for anyone wishing to participate.
“It’s definitely laid back, and there’s a place for everyone to go,” Durham said. “If you don’t want to dance, you can just step outside, where there’s still plenty of stuff to do.”
In addition to these activities, the event included a coronation for members of the College community who were elected by their peers to reign as royals for the remainder of the year. AMP reaches out to student organizations for nominations from their membership, then puts the list of nominees on TribeLink for voting by the student body. The top 10 finalists are voted on again on Charter Day, when AMP and SA crown one Royal Majesty and four Royal Highnesses.
Jones saw the coronation ceremony as a way to further allow students to be involved with Charter Day and encourage them to participate in the celebration.
“It’s a fun incentive to get people to come to this to begin with,” Jones said. “I think a lot of students just don’t care about Charter Day personally, so finding ways to get them involved is great.”
MacDonnell viewed the royal coronation as a chance to honor members of the College community that deserve to be recognized for their contributions.
“I voted for Kyle Lewis-Johnson because he was my Orientation Aide and just a fantastic member of the William and Mary community,” MacDonell said. “I think he stands up for a lot of really important causes, and I would just love to see him get some recognition. I was really excited to vote for him.”
The celebration also had a dress code of “bash finest attire,” with students in attendance donning formal wear like dresses and suits as they attended the festivities.
“I like that it’s an opportunity to dress up,” Marina Carapanos ’25 said. “I don’t really think we get many formal events on campus, so it’s nice to be able to do that.”
In order to pull off the many moving parts necessary to host an event as large as the Green and Gold Bash, Jones explained that AMP and SA began planning in December and met throughout January over Zoom to ensure the event went off without a hitch.
“A lot of it was also just day-of stuff,” Jones said. “We had to make sure that when we got back to campus everything was already kind of finished, but the snow almost set us off the rails on that end.”
The collaboration between the two groups saw efforts and budgeting evenly split during the planning process as well. AMP purchased novelty and crafting items, while SA handled hiring the DJ and placing the catering order.
“We divided up the tasks but also met multiple times as a committee to talk to each other and share our updates,” Jones said.
Jones views Green and Gold Bash not only as an opportunity to let loose with friends, but as a way to help students feel that they are a part of Charter Day, especially since the event has been historically less geared toward them in past years.
“The first time we did Green and Gold Bash was two years ago, and it was a completely new thing where we wanted to make Charter Day more student-focused,” Jones said. “The Kaplan ceremony is obviously something that not a lot of students go to or connect to, so we wanted something in which students could feel like they could celebrate the birthday of their alma mater.”