In honor of Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent in New Orleans, BeanSwitch is hosting a Bake Sale today with a Marti Gras theme from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M. in the stairwell of the Humanities building. “We will be selling brownies, cupcakes, and fortune cookies,” said Dr. Leslie LaChance, faculty advisor to BeanSwitch. “Poems and fortunes will also be distributed with baked goods. Since today is officially Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent, people can still give in to temptation.”

BeanSwitch is also planning other events for the semester. One event is an Art Show and Poetry Reading that will be held on Tuesday, March 3, in room 206 of the University Center. “We will have an open mic and an open invitation for artists to show their art,” said LaChance. “Artists who need easels to show their work should bring one along if they have one. This will also be a chance for artists who want to submit work for consideration for BeanSwitch to actually have their work photographed.”

When asked what future plans BeanSwitch is planning for the semester, LaChance said, “We will also have a publication party in April, but the date isn’t set for that yet.” Future plans and dates for BeanSwitch activities will be announced. When asked if she had further comments, LaChance said, “BeanSwitch has a talented staff. The students consistently impress me with their creativity, dedication, and outrageous sense of humor! I think the Switchlings have done a great job with all aspects of production: publicity, events, selection process, design and sales.”

“We would like to continue to include more student submissions and have more students working on the staff,” LaChance said in regard to future plans. “We’re also looking forward to more collaborations with other student groups on campus, such as the Visual Arts Society. In terms of magazine production, we are hoping to increase advertising sales revenues so that we can produce the magazine on better quality paper, with more color, making the publication even more attractive and showcasing visual art more effectively. We’d like to produce the kind of literary magazine that could take first prize in a national competition.”

Crystal Zanders, a Senior Spanish major, is an active member of BeanSwitch and added these comments, “BeanSwitch is doing a lot of exciting things this semester and I’m glad to be a part of it. I sincerely enjoy it. We work together as a team. I’m really proud of our magazine. It started off small and not well known. There were 2 people involved in BeanSwitch in my freshman semester. At the last meeting, there were fifteen new people there. Now we have a website and are essentially international.”

When asked what majors are involved in BeanSwitch, Zanders said, “We have people involved from a variety of majors such as Spanish, Biology, Math, English and Visual Communications. We take anyone who wants to work.”

Victoria Hughes, a Junior Visual Communications major is also an active member of the BeanSwitch staff and said, “BeanSwitch has really grown and progressed in the past year. We have switched from publishing 1 issue a year to 1 a semester. We had a lot of turn out this year in submissions, especially in visual art. We have also gotten a lot more recognition. We’ve been advertising and people are more aware of BeanSwitch. This year we sold over two hundred-fifty copies last semester. In previous years, we struggled to sell one hundred-fifty for the year.”

“Previously, BeanSwitch was strictly an English department publication. This year it has been included in Student Publications and it has grown,” Hughes said. When asked what future plans BeanSwitch is considering, Hughes said that they are preparing to do Bean Pods again this semester.

BeanSwitch is open to all students and encourages all majors to become involved. BeanSwitch meetings are at 5:15 P.M. every Thurs. in the Writing Center, room 209 in the Humanities building.