The Undergraduate Student Government, or USG, at Stony Brook University had quite a busy day on Friday, May 6. In addition to the Roth Pond Regatta in the afternoon, the USG was holding a concert later that evening. Moiz Khan Malik, USG director of events, was in charge of both. However, he needed someone to run the Regatta while he was working on the concert. That’s where Alexander Dimitriyadi steps in.

Although Dimitriyadi is the former Executive Vice President, or EVP, for the USG, Malik chose him to run the event.

“To think of him as outside the USG is hard for me,” Malik said. “He was a USG senator in ’09-’10 and EVP for most of this year. I guess he technically doesn’t have a title anymore. I asked him because I knew I needed someone to rely on.”

Dimitriyadi, who is also a columnist for The Statesman, was happy to help. “Between the concert and the Roth Regatta in the same day I was asked to volunteer and help out,” Dimitriyadi said. “So I was like, ‘Yeah, why not.’”

Malik wasn’t too concerned about problems on the day of the event, including the thinning of the pond. “It’s only really thinner in one area, I think, around the middle area of the peanut shape and usually by that time, the boats aren’t right next to each other, someone has a lead,” Malik said. “Also that used to get boats stuck so that actually will help the race.”

Malik said his primary role was working on the concert.

“Dimitriyadi is running the event because I have to be over at the concert, tons of work still to do for that,” Malik said. “In some way, I have to be in two places at once, but my primary role is the concert. It’s also across campus too, which makes it even more difficult, but it should be fun. There is no one on this campus I trust more to run an event as large as the Roth Regatta.”

Dimitriyadi was running the Regatta alongside Julian Cordero, the master of ceremonies.

Dimitriyadi said he coordinated a lot of the event including the spacing, staging and speakers.

“I also worked with Fratelli’s to get a free barbecue for 3,000 to 4,000 people,” Dimitriyadi said.

There were also new awards to be handed out at the Regatta.

“We have best in show, first, second and third,” said Dimitriyadi. “This is the first year we have best costume. We also have the “Kicking in the Back Seat” award for the boat that judges thought was a good boat but it didn’t race well. Then there’s the Peter M. Baigent community award for the boat that brought most people together to work on it.”

To show how well Dimtriyadi and Malik work well together, they both made the wrong prediction that the “evil boats” would win the Regatta.