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Second-year pre-economics student Wendy James and fifth-year political science student Enbey Lope

The Associated Students of UCLA hosted a variety of activities this week in its annual Welcome Week, drawing thousands of participants to kick off a new school year.

Welcome Week, which has been a tradition at UCLA since 1997, was put on in conjunction with the Undergraduate Students Association Council. The week-long event has recently been modified to start on what is known as Black Sunday, the Sunday before the start of fall classes during which multiple fraternities formerly held large parties.

Complaints had been filed against the Black Sunday parties by Westwood residents, saying that they brought in many people from outside the area, causing massive traffic, crime and overall chaos. Holding university-organized events instead of the parties was suggested in order to reduce this disorder.

Sunday afternoon, the undergraduate student government hosted a carnival on the Intramural Field. The event was followed that evening by a concert featuring Wildchild, a Doors tribute band, as well as a dance party and a showing of the movie “The Big Lebowski” at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Kenn Heller, associate director for the Center for Student Programming, estimated that the carnival and dance drew about 2,000 participants, while the film was attended by about 250 people.

“Welcome Week was, overall, highly successful,” Heller said.

Urim Ryu, a third-year student, said that she thought the activities had done a good job of replacing Black Sunday.

“There are more activities this year than there were last year, and more food,” Ryu said.

The ASUCLA-organized activities spanned throughout the week, starting with a casino night in Ackerman Union on Tuesday. Students played video games, pool and pinball for free in the Xcape game room.

On Wednesday, ASUCLA hosted a job fair for students, showcasing employment opportunities in restaurant, retail and administrative services on campus.

ASUCLA held a “Back to the Beach” party on Thursday with live music, games and free food samples from UCLA restaurants. The event is scheduled to occur again today from 3 to 6 p.m.

Andrew Chen, a second-year student, said that he thought giving the free samples at the party was a good idea, and that it tempted him to sample foods that he would not usually pay for to try.

“[Welcome Week] was a great event. It had a very positive outcome, and the students all seemed very enthusiastic,” said Bob Williams, ASUCLA’s interim executive director.

USAC’s Cultural Affairs office also hosted Freshman Convocation in Pauley Pavilion, which included multiple student-group performances and a speech by the chancellor. The event concluded with a barbecue.

“The purpose of the convocation was to give freshmen an opportunity to see the different groups that they could get involved with on campus,” said Courtney Martin, chief of staff for Cultural Affairs.

Musical performances at the convocation included a cappella groups such as Random Voices and Scattertones and drumming groups such as Kyodo Taiko and Poongmul. There were also dance performances from Samahong Modern, a hip-hop group, and Groupo Folklorico de UCLA, a traditional dance group.

The UCLA marching band and the spirit squad also performed.

“The goal of the week was to provide activities and expose people to things that hadn’t taken place in the past. Students interacted and had a good time,” Heller said.