College Environment Blooms Friendships: Insight on USF’s Activities Board
By Hailey Cisar
At the University of Sioux Falls campus, you can find most students out on the grassy quad located in the middle of cam pus, in the gym, also known as the Stewart Center or the McDonald Center where the cafeteria and cafe are, enjoying all different kinds of events. Popular events are cookouts, hosted by clubs where students can stop for a meal or hang out and play games for a while, a DJ which is often booked for times like welcome week, intramural sports, held throughout the year for all students, dorm Olympic games, bonfires, and many other events, all thanks to the Cougar Activities Board. It is beneficial, while students are at college, for them to be able to find a home away from home. Attending events on campus builds a community and is a good way to get involved and meet people beyond the classrooms. The Cougar Activities Board, also known as CAB, is a group of faculty and students that meet to brainstorm events to put on for everyone on campus to enjoy. Every event is thought through very well and with the best interest of students to make the environment welcoming and exciting. Throughout the summer, the CAB team meets to get to know each other, building relationships and setting goals to make the school year events go smoothly. To get on the board you go through an application and interview process, ensuring that each member is the perfect fit for their role. Kylee Miller is one of the faces behind CAB. Last year, Kylee was chosen to be president at the last minute, two days before school started but that did not stop her from jumping into action and picking up where the last president left off. “I’m a senior this year and so I’ve been doing it since freshman year, and what we do is we get together, biweekly and plan events on campus for people to come out and enjoy. There’s a bunch of different events, but we do everything to try and get people included. So, if there’s sports people, we have intramurals, and there’s people who like artsy stuff we have paint night and things like that. So, we kind of do all the events to get everyone on campus involved,” Miller said. Miller said, there is a transition of new people stepping up. Lindsay Daschner and Brooke Klingensmith will serve as co-presidents beginning in the Fall. Because Miller graduated in December, the current CAB President is Courtney Holsteen. Daschner is a sophomore and joined CAB to be able to get some extra scholarship money and to get involved at school, further than sports. “I feel like I am very organized and like planning and wanting to be in charge,” Daschner said. The goals for CAB are always increasing, and each member works hard to move towards them. This year, they started implementing fundraising in different ways like selling t-shirts for the key to the city football game. Fundraising is beneficial to be able to create larger events and provide for more students. “Welcome week we did a DJ and that was super fun, and we had a great turn out, we got pizza and drinks but, it’s expensive and we only have so much of a budget,” Miller said. Other ways the board is wanting to improve is getting new people on the board. The last couple years there was only one male on the board, and the rest of the student members were females, and then for a while it was just females but now this year there is a male on the board again which makes a big impact. “It’s grown to get more boys involved. It’s usually hard to get them in there but then they have different perspectives. Even prize wise, you’d never think of a prize being an oil change until a guy is like that’s a genius prize.” Miller said. Miller said you don’t have to be on the board to get involved. Ideas for future events can be sent through emails or shared through word of mouth to any of the CAB members, they are always open for new ideas, and the creative effort can spark from any USF student or staff.
