CAB: College Programming Board of the Year

Congratulations to Castleton’s College Activities Board (CAB) for being named the Boyd James Programming Board of the Year! The award was presented at the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA)’s annual conference in April. This is an interesting conference; college representatives attend as a way to learn about possible acts to bring to campus. By all accounts, it’s intense but also fun. Participants begin each of five days from 7:00 AM, attending mainly demo sessions by prospective performers every hour until midnight. Performances range from comedy routines to musical acts and everything in between. Even meals are taken up with demonstration acts. Representatives of the twenty members of Castleton’s Activities Board attend the event every year. This year, they were selected for the ultimate award from among the 185 colleges and universities with representatives at the event and the myriad others who participate in the APCA. It’s difficult to overstate the accomplishment and recognition.

VP of Campus Activities for the Student Government Association, Adsel Sparrow received the award for Castleton. She says that at first she was shocked to hear that Castleton would be honored, but ultimately not really surprised. If you have heard anything about campus activities in the recent past, you will know why. Their mission is to provide quality programming for all students, not just for entertainment but to provide social spaces for students to connect with one another on campus. The year before last, CAB’s events were nearly setting records for off-the-chart attendance, and though lower this year, the participation is firmly in line with pre-pandemic levels. Sparrow attributes this attendance, in part, to the board’s selection and variation of events. They host at least three major events a week, both homegrown and national acts. It’s gotten hard for students to say that there is nothing going on on campus on the weekends!

Not surprisingly, as well, it turns out that Castleton actually has a reputation among college campus performers. Castleton is known to be a good school for performers, mainly because of how the representatives of the activities board treat them. Sparrow says that agencies like working with Castleton for this very reason, and one national performer actually offers Castleton a “James Wolfe is Awesome Discount” on performance fees. Sparrow credits much of the board’s success to staff mentors Matt Patry, now Associate Dean of Students and now Wolfe, Interim Director of Student Activities. For more on James Wolfe, you can read a profile in this issue of The Educator.

Congratulations to Adsel Sparrow and the whole Campus Activities Board!