By Jessica Siprelle

News Correspondent

On Oct. 28, the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and the Cape Verdean Student Association (CVSA) hosted “Fright Night,” a Halloween DJ Party at afterHOURS, which both clubs said was their most important and largest event to date. This is the third year both clubs came together to put on the Latin Sabura event.
This year, the event experienced its most successful turnout yet, Bryan Munoz, president of LASO, said. The presidents of both clubs planned the event with the help of their respective e-boards beginning in the summer. The event featured a set by DJ CASE, who is also an NU alumnus, and Yunel Cruz, a bachata artist whose music embodies an upbeat two-step style.
The clubs chose Latin Sabura for the title of the event because it means “good time” or “party” and because music and dance is a central component of Cape Verdean and Hispanic culture.
“Music has always been a great way to bring people together,” Munoz said.
The entire week leading up to the event featured a host of activities for students to celebrate Hispanic heritage and break down cultural barriers, Munoz said. These activities included a week of dance lessons, icebreaker activities for participants and both clubs’ general body meetings. However, due to Northeastern’s NU+1 policy, Munoz said planning the event this year was not easy.
Munoz said both clubs planned for the event to be NU+1 after receiving approval from Student Government Association (SGA) and Student Activities Business Office, but a week before the event, they were notified that it would be NU only and that only 30 non-Northeastern students would be allowed to attend.
“This threw us off a little because it was a little tough to reach out to [other schools],” said Munoz, who added that the last-minute changes made for a stressful night.
The stress was mainly due to the marketing of the event. Munoz and Gabriel Mansour, treasurer of LASO, said they advertised the event as NU+1 through TV advertisements, their OrgSync page, Facebook, a newsletter and flyers to notify students of the event. When they were told the event would be NU only, there was not enough time to change the flyers.
“Many non-NU students wanted to get in but couldn’t because the 30 person capacity had already been reached,” Mansour said.
Mansour shared Munoz’ frustration over the NU+1 policy. He said he agreed that the policy “affects the connections the group has at other schools.”
Munoz said he was concerned that certain groups’ events were able to achieve NU+1 status more easily than others.
“The NU+1 policy has been quite controversial the past few years,” said Munoz. “Certain groups have been able to get NU+1 events and last year we were only able to get NU only. The issues with this policy stem from a lack of communication between students and university administration.”
SGA Comptroller Anthony Golia explained NU+1 policies to The News.
“Campus activities has a policy that all dance parties have to be Northeastern only what happened was the people that manage afterHOURS made the decision to overrule the finance board and say that this was a dance party, and for that it was NU only,” Golia said.
Golia said the finance board of SGA doesn’t really make the decision; the program managers are supposed to advise groups and determine whether events should be NU +1. He said the managers of afterHOURS made the call after seeing the event flyers.
Despite planning obstacles,  both Mansour and Munoz said they felt the event was a success. Munoz said that by 11 p.m., the event had reached it’s 276-person capacity and that it saw both returning and new participants.
Those who attended the event also agreed that it was a success. Ibis Valdes, a freshman international affairs and political science major and a member ofLASO said “The music [was] a dynamic mix between top 40, hip-hop and Latin dance to keep everyone with varying musical preferences satisfied. I’ve had a super great time at the two LASO Halloween events that I’ve been to. I absolutely cannot wait for the next one.”
Munoz said the success of the event was due to LASO’s close work with other groups, as well as with the student body.
“LASO has its name out finally,” Mansour said. “[Students] know what we stand for.”
But both presidents agreed the main purpose of the event was to celebrate and display the cultures of the respective clubs to the community through a partnership and to demonstrate the mission statements of both LASO and CVSA.
Founded 20 years ago on campus, LASO is dedicated to the advancement of Latin American culture
“[It] has many different mission statements,” Munoz said. “But its current mission is dedicated to the advancement of our culture and preservation of our identity. And each year, there are new initiatives being taken.”
Munoz said the 30-member club welcomes many ideas by talking to new groups, working with Greek life, and encouraging all people – regardless of culture – to participate in LASO. He encourages students to attend meetings in order to break barriers and be open to new things.
“We are one big collaborator and we work with people with similar goals … [to] show people you can branch out but stay true to who you are,” Munoz said. “You can learn a lot about other cultures by going and experiencing other cultures. This is part of growing as a person.”
CVSA was created with a similar mindset as LASO and also as a way to “display Cape Verdean culture to the community, since there are not a lot of Cape Verdeans at Northeastern,”  said Valduvino Goncalves, president of CVSA.
“CVSA started in 2002 and was created as a home away from home for Cape Verdeans at Northeastern,” Goncalves said.  “The mission is to let the word out through music, food and dance.”