To help curb a steady decrease in LateNight Penn State attendance, officials are looking to organized student input to analyze and revamp the program's activities.

Assistant Director of Student Activities John Harlow, who oversees the programs, said over the past few years, LateNight attendance has dropped about a couple thousand semester. LateNight, created in 1996 to provide alternative programs for students on the weekend, offers movies, arts and crafts, and sports activities, at the HUB-Robeson Center and White Building.

Harlow said there are several factors that have contributed to the decline, including students' entertainment expectations have changed, and the increase of cell phones and students' constant mobility of being on the go.

The new Student Programming Association (SPA), which is made up of students, will help improve the program, Liz Roosa Millar, director at the Center for Student Activities and Programming, said.

Adrienne Giannone, director of operations of SPA said a Penn State Pulse survey was recently conducted to evaluate students' opinions of the programs and a LateNight committee will be formed to analyze the programs and provide input.

Giannone said SPA has already made impact on other campus events, noting the success of sold-out ticket sales for the comedian Charlie Murphy last Saturday.

Harlow said while there's no proof that LateNight cuts down on binge drinking, he thinks it does. Without alternative programs such as LateNight, Harlow said he thinks the drinking problem would be far worse.

For example, Giannone said because movies go until midnight that's a "couple less hours not drinking" for students who go out afterwards.

Millar agrees with Giannone.

"It almost curves binge drinking because they're not going to be in the bars so long," Millar said. "[I] don't think we're going to stop people from drinking. We'll slow them down."