Aicha Ly | Opinion Editor
CAB is the main creator of events on campus, so it’s kind of disappointing to say that I rarely ever feel a want, or need, to go to their events. In freshman year, especially first semester, I went to them fairly regularly always hoping that they would exceed my expectations, but, unfortunately, they rarely did. It’s obvious that people put a lot of time into coming up with ideas and activities, yet it seems as though many students hold the same ambivalence as I do towards their programs. This past Friday, March 24th, I ventured from my dorm to a CAB event for one of the first times all year. I had read that it was Friends themed and that peaked my attention. On the list of activities, they stated there would be baby chicks, DIY sugar scrubs, cookie decorating, trivia with prizes, massages and pizza. The baby chicks won me over, and I forced my friends to accompany me across campus.
We showed up late, as college students are apt to do, and they were already out of pizza. Free food is half of the reason anybody goes to anything, and there was still over an hour and a half left of the time that the program was supposed to run. In addition to this, as soon as we walked in, we were immediately overwhelmed by the blaring music. For a low-key event this was disappointing, because it made it difficult to talk to each other, let alone hear instructions for the activities they had planned. For example, at the trivia station the worker had to basically yell into your ear so that you could comprehend what she was saying. Perhaps this was why it seemed as though there were barely thirty people at the entire event. However, having thirty people worked, because if there had been anymore there would have been long waiting lines for their pre-planned activities; there were five tables that you could do things at, and each could handle maybe 3 people at a time.
After having been to a fair amount of CAB events, I would say that this setup is pretty standard, but also that it might be the reason people don’t bother going. Maybe if they had more events where many people could be doing things at once, like their roller skating event, more people would go. Maybe if they had less events, but put more time and money into their set up they would be more successful. Maybe if they did a better job of advertising their events people would go. I only know about them half the time, because I have to look at Eastern’s Calendar of Events on a fairly regular basis. All I know is that whatever they are doing now doesn’t seem to work for creating consistently entertaining programs.