UBG ups ante over January
Attendance for activities achieves notable increase during interim; governors hope to continue trend

By Nathan Elg

Mirror Staff Writer
February 29, 2008

Union Board of Governors (UBG) unveiled a new logo and struck a partnership with Lifelight alongside a one-third attendance increase from last year’s interim.

UBG is hoping this will swing them into spring with well-attended, quality events.

UBG already drew more than 200 students to the movie Enchanted earlier this month in the Back Alley, requiring every piece of furniture in the Commons main level to be moved to the Back Alley.

Fifty more students attended sexual assault speaker Steve Thompson and hundreds more attended the Johnny Holm Band in the Back Alley a week ago.

“It’s so hard to pinpoint what it is that is bringing more people to UBG events,” senior UBG head governor senior Amy Weber said. “But there definitely have been more frequent and diverse events happening.”

Activities director Jeff Venekamp attributes the attendance increase to their frequent Wednesday-night programming. He says UBG has held an event every Wednesday except two during this academic year.

Weber and Venekamp also attribute the attendance increase to UBG Film co-governors juniors Pamela Hoffmann and Alyssa Herrig.

“Film has done a great job of selecting movies this year,” Venekamp said. “The films have been more main-stream, which ends up bringing more people.”

Although UBG is offering more events and drawing more people, it is no perfect organization. For most of their event choices UBG relies on the demands of the Augustana community and UBG hopes to increase student contribution.

“A huge goal of mine is to get more students involved with what UBG is doing,” Venekamp said. “We have our suggestion box, we send out surveys and we would like to see more        Facebook messages about events they saw or events they want to see, because we listen to them.”

UBG Lectures co-governor junior Clarissa Thompson holds the same goal with an additional approach.

“I would like to get more students involved by collaborating more with other organizations,” Thompson said. “We can reach out to these other groups on campus and have more opportunities with more students here at Augie.”

UBG is also facing the challenge of guaranteeing UBG committees appropriate funding to plan diverse and well-organized events.

Last year the organization Concert and Lectures moved to UBG to form UBG Lectures for a two-year trial after Concert and Lectures accrued no student leadership on its own. Augustana Student Association (ASA) also appropriated the $40,000 annual funding of Concert and Lectures to newly-formed UBG Lectures for those two years.

That two-year trial expires at the end of this year, and this spring UBG plans to decide whether to keep UBG Lectures or move the committee back into its own organization.

Some co-governors support UBG’s current structure, while others would like to see UBG Lectures become Concerts and Lectures again like it was two years ago.

Still, others support the preservation of UBG Lectures only if some of its $40,000 funding were appropriated to other UBG committees. Some co-governors believe the UBG Big Event committee deserves more than its current $10,000 funding.

Venekamp said the UBG’s head governor constructs UBG’s budget.

Thompson was chosen last week to become next year’s UBG head governor.

“I really like the structure as it is now,” Thompson said. “But I am open to looking at the budget and making funding changes. I understand Big Event wants more money.”