Campus Times
March 4, 2005
The newly developed Campus Activities Board is looking to enrich the social lives of University of La Verne students.
CAB, an organization held by many other college institutions including Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona, is typically a wing outside of student government. In general, the focus is on coordinating events and activities for students.
Chip West, student services specialist and adviser to CAB, was surprised to learn that ULV didn’t have an activities board.
West, who has priorly worked at four other universities, suggested CAB as a way for the Associated Student Federation to move out of the programming genre and enable ASF to focus on larger campus issues such as curriculum reform and tuition.
“We want to focus more on student advocacy,” said Dana McJunkin, ASF president.
“That’s what this campus needs right now because of this transition phase we’re about to go though with the student center being renovated. We need people to stick around and to not feel left out, lost in their own campus,” McJunkin said.
Being a joint venture between ASF and the Office of Student Life, CAB is now helping ASF to clearly define their role on campus. In the past ASF was not only in charge of funding, but also student programs and activities.
“ASF was trying to do so many things,” West said. “They were trying to give money to student clubs and organizations, trying to advocate for issues, trying to do programs like cosmic bowling. They were trying to be everything to everyone."
ASF has funded $17,000 to CAB this semester, which is substantially less in comparison to what other universities are awarded.
Cal State Fullerton CAB has an annual program budget of $210,000.
CAB is composed of an activities board chair, activities board vice-chair, marketing sub-chair, multicultural programs sub-chair, games and recreation sub-chair, health education sub-chair, concerts sub-chair, special events sub-chair and films sub-chair. Many of the chair positions are paid work-study and all chairpersons on CAB are prohibited from working in ASF.
Wendy Schwartz, activities board chair, left ASF to work for CAB. This is Schwartz’s last semester at ULV.
“I still go to ASF meetings, I’m just not a voting member,” Schwartz said.
“I want to go into event planning as a career and this is the perfect opportunity to do that,” Schwartz said.
Interestingly enough, Schwartz is majoring in social science.
With 40 programs promised for the spring 2005 semester, CAB is to make certain that there is never a dull moment.
CAB began its movie night series Feb. 28. The first showing, “Forest Gump,” will be followed by “Kill Bill Vol. 1” on March 8 and “Kill Bill Vol. .2” on March 10.
If you’re into country, there will be a line dancing class on March 9 at 10 p.m. in the Old Gym.
Games and recreation may be more your style. A Ping pong tournament begins March 15 at 10 p.m. Just before spring break there will be an Easter egg hunt in the quad on March 16.
CAB has also been looking into a comedy program and a spoken word forum.
By far one of the largest and most popular CAB programs this semester is intramural soccer.
ULV students have expressed a desire for more consistent intramural sports on campus.
Teams consist of 10 players and the turnout for meetings and signups have been huge.
Tournaments are scheduled to begin early this month. You can also expect intramural volleyball and basketball to be added later.
“Without activities it’s a lot harder for students to get together, have fun and make that close bond or friendship of a life time,” said Chris Skraba, accountant and chief financial officer of ASF. “It brings the whole campus together,” Skraba said.
West believes organizations like CAB add to the whole college experience and give students a sense of community, at the same time exposing them to music, culture and ultimately life.
“This all about creating campus life, creating a connection with community,” West said. “This is a community of people’s lives.”
Jessica Warden can be reached at jesselw@verizon.net.