Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor
The Krannert Center Activities Board (KCAB), Student Government Association (SGA) and Residence Life are responsible for most of the events that occur on campus during the year. Students have complained, both in person and on the anonymous forum app YikYak at the lack of events so far this year. One post said “Last year by this time we already had a skate night and the silent disco was September 30 but we’ve had nothing so far this year … please do something for us.”
All three organizations have event plans underway. Residence Life has their first Late Night of the year, with Morton-Lemley hosting a silent disco tommorrow at Ford. Their silent disco was voted as the best late night last year and returned to the Residence Life plans.
“Every year, the RA’s from each building region plan events that they then host for anyone to attend, and they do a really good job of it,” Area Coordinator Lauren Watson said. “They usually do start around this time, since the first couple weeks are formative for training and settling in and then the beginning of September is when classes start picking up. So they’re pretty on track as far as timing goes.”
Late Nights started in 2008 when a Berry alumna, Natalie Henderson Bates, returned a year after her graduation to join the Residence Life staff. She started Late Nights as a way to bring the campus together. She died in 2016, but an award was created in her honor to celebrate a successful late night during the year.
“The Late Nights have been around since I can remember,” Area Coordinator Karen DiRuggiero said. “They do a great job of bringing people from campus together and giving them something to do together and I think they’re always a lot of fun. At the end of the year when we award the best one, there’s often quite a few that stand out.”
SGA focuses on large scale events that both benefit and entertain students. Their first event of the year is the Berry Bellhops program that helps freshmen unload all their things on move-in day. They also host events such as Food for Finals, where professors serve dinner to students in preparation for finals, and Mr. Berry, a pageant style show where male students can compete to be named Mr. Berry.
“I love being on the planning side of it,” sophomore and SGA Secretary Anna Yard said. “I get to work with Sam Cooper and Chef Lawrence in planning Food for Finals and that’s something I’m really looking forward to planning. We all oversee several committees and teams and the work and collaboration that goes into each project is a team effort.”
KCAB’s events tend to be the largest throughout the year. They include the Mountain Day talent show on Oct. 14, Semi-Formal on Nov. 18, Finals Fest and Casino Night. Other events such as Skate Night and Bowling Night are interspersed through the year. This year, the layouts of several events have changed, with Bowling Night and Skate Night being presented as one alongside the Explore Rome night. KCAB Executive Director Kayla Riles has been aware of student complaints of their lack of events so far this year, and said that this year there will be a larger focus of quality over quantity. Part of this is due to the disrespect KCAB received last year on social media and in person in response to events they hosted.
“We were really disrespected with the events we did last year,” Riles said. “This year we’re taking the feedback we got and it may seem like there are fewer events, but we want to focus more on the quality of the events we do have. We have a team of 16 students and it’s too much for all of us to handle if we’re planning event after event back to back to back.”
According to staff of all three organizations, students have much to look forward to and should keep an eye out for upcoming announcements. Dates for upcoming events can be found in the Campus Presence app, as well as on Instagram accounts for KCAB (@kcabatberry), SGA (@berrysga) and Residence Life (@berryreslife).