When an event is happening on campus, it is likely that is planned by the Campus Activities Board, or CAB. From comedians and illusionists, to zip lining and dance parties, CAB hosts many events throughout the year. Co-leaders Marissa Uhrig and Caleb Young both say CAB is a lot of work, but rewarding.

“The booking and scheduling of events is handled by our advisor, but as members of CAB, we get to give input as to what or who we think students would enjoy,” Uhrig said. “After that, we get to help plan promotion, set-up and other aspects of the event and finally we get to enjoy them.”

Director of Student Affairs Nicole Dyer is also the advisor to CAB. She has been involved with CAB for eight years and said the process for booking an event is lengthy and starts with the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA). Dyer said she and a few students from CAB attend this conference where many artists display and perform parts of their acts.

“Once we get back to campus, the Student Activities Intern puts together a presentation of these acts for the rest of CAB to vote on,” she said. “Once the votes are tallied, CAB works toward securing those artists for specific dates. While at NACA, the students also have the opportunity to meet other CAB delegates from our region and talk with them about events at other campuses. This always helps to generate new and interesting ideas for events as well as marketing strategies.”

Uhrig is a junior computer arts and graphic programming and computer science major and has been involved with CAB since her freshman year. She said she got involved with CAB because of her passion for planning events.

“I joined CAB because I have always loved working with the planning and execution of events,” she said. “I knew that CAB would be a perfect fit when I first heard about it, so I interviewed, got in, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

CAB works on putting on all of the events throughout the semester. Annual events include Springfest, Banana Splittin’ and the Homecoming dance. Uhrig said it’s good to look at CAB’s calendar early in the year to know what events are happening. She also said that CAB’s goal is to give students something to look forward to on the weekends.

“We normally have around 15 events a semester, so that students can stay busy and have activities to go to over the weekends instead of heading home,” she said.

CAB currently consists of around 40 students and meets every Wednesday night, Uhrig said, to discuss new ideas, publicity and the schedule. Students can join CAB by signing up for an interview at the Involvement Table Booth or in the Student Life office.

Dyer also said that CAB is seeking members and all students are welcome to sign up for an interview to be involved with CAB, even though some interviews are already scheduled.

“As a result of the Involvement Fair during Orientation Weekend, CAB has over 60 interviews scheduled,” she said. “Even if students are not involved with CAB, all students are invited to participate in CAB events.”

CAB tries to schedule roughly 40 events per year. Although Uhrig said most of the work is done by the advisor, she runs the weekly meetings and also has executive board members that help with the work load of being a co-leader.

“As a co-leader I help to conduct our weekly meetings and to overview CAB as a whole,” she said. “There is also a board of executive members who are extremely fantastic and we all work together with general members to help make our events as successful as possible.”

Uhrig is excited for the semester to get started and said her favorite thing about CAB is the enjoyment students get out of the events. She said that knowing they did their best makes the events more enjoyable.

“My favorite part about CAB is the ability to see all of my peers enjoying an event, and knowing that we were able to succeed in our mission to bring entertainment and fantastic events to our campus,” she said.

Dyer agreed and said she loves the community in CAB, as well as hosting the events each semester.

“I love the enthusiasm that CAB members have for their events and the friendships that form as a result of their involvement with CAB,” she said. “I also love what CAB does for the campus – especially when an event brings students together and gets them out of their room for a bit.”