Anna Rinaggio, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor

The Krannert Center Activities Board (KCAB) is gearing up for the end of the semester. With semi-formal, “Holidays at Berry” and a coffee house on the horizon before finals, the teams are busy preparing for the last events of the year. 

Semi-formal, which will be on Saturday, will have a masquerade theme this year. KCAB will be providing masks for the event, but students are also encouraged to bring their own if they so desire. The event will be in the Ford Dining Hall and will have both an indoor and outdoor section for students to mingle between. 

Semi-formal is a “full board” event, meaning that all KCAB teams are working together to make the event happen. Junior Adam Guyden, a KCAB event coordinator, is in charge of one of the teams responsible for the outdoor area and said that they are making sure that it is both fun and comfortable. 

“We’ll have some outdoor seating with plenty of heating options,” Guyden said. “That I’m making sure of because that’s what my team is in charge of. So we’re doing our best to make sure we don’t have anybody freezing and bringing in a DJ, some lights, and just trying to make it a nice, wonderful night for people to come relax.”

In addition to this, Junior Kaya Riles, KCAB’s student director, said that the event will also have catering and a photo booth. 

“We plan on having some catering coming. We’re having the Rustic Coffee truck and we’re having Doug’s cookies, and hopefully we’re going to have some smaller things like from Publix Bakery and stuff, and then we’ll also be having a photo booth with some props [for] people to take pictures [with]. 

As far as full board events go, Riles said that semi-formal is one of the easiest to put together. 

“I think our spring semesters are probably where we can really do the most planning, but with semi-formal, it’s kind of figuring out what we’re bringing that people can eat, and then where’s the photo area and [what] are the tickets going to look [like], which our promotions teams take care of that, and then just like small logistical things like layout of the event and where the event will be,” Riles said. “That’s really all we have to do for semi-formal and formal.”

Junior Aiyana Robinson, a KCAB event manager, said that this year’s semi-formal is different from last year’s mostly in the sense that COVID-19 guidelines, such as social distancing and wearing a face mask, are much less rigid. 

“People still had to wear their masks and everything [last year],” Robinson said. “They really did try to space everything out, especially outside. They really wanted a lot of flow outside along with inside, but [this year] we’re adding things inside, but we can still have flow outside. Like if people get too hot [they can] cool down outside and whatnot.” 

Riles said that decorating for semi-formal this year is easier than in the past because they are working with a smaller, historic space with stricter rules, whereas last year, when they were in the Ford Gym, they had more area to cover. 

“I think it was a lot harder decorating and setting up for [last year’s] semi-formal than it will be for this semi-formal because it’s in Ford Dining Hall [this year],” said Riles. “You can’t really hang up anything in there, so a lot of our décor is going to be free hanging or they’re going to be things that we can pick up, carry around, and move around, so we don’t have to plaster anywhere. So there’s not a lot of décor this year because we’re working with a small space [and] a historic space, so it’s a lot easier.”

Semi-formal is not the only event that looks different in comparison to the past few years. With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, KCAB has been able to greatly diversify the types of events they run this year, both on and off campus. 

Riles said that during her freshman year, she remembered going to a lot of coffee houses and karaoke nights. As student director, she decided to limit those events to once a semester. 

“As far as coffee houses and karaoke nights, that was the main thing we did my freshman year,” Riles said. “I mean like every single weekend there was at least one, so this year, as student director, I made it a thing of pushing those back a little in making them kind of like a good gem to have once every semester instead of having two to three every single semester.”

Guyden said that one of the biggest differences in KCAB events is the number of them being held. Last year, KCAB aimed to hold two events every weekend in an effort to keep as many people on campus as possible. This year, they can step back a bit and let people venture out into the Rome community for events as well. 

“During COVID, we tried to have two events every weekend, where it’s one on Friday and one on Saturday, and there were very few times we didn’t do that,” Guyden said. “But this semester, we had some weekends where we just had an event on Saturday that was a little bit bigger and said ‘hey ya’ll can come to this’ and things like that, versus trying to put something out every weekend so there’s always something to do on campus. Now, the Rome area can offer more opportunities for students off campus.”