As the first week of the spring semester drew to a close, many students chose to celebrate by gathering in the Gillette lounge for “CABob night.” This event featured a long table full of skewer-able snacks, a chocolate fountain, a Wii console, and a number of other board and card games. Students from across campus visited to enjoy the free food, as well as socialize in a relaxed environment. CABob night was conceived and produced by Houghton’s CAB team, which had planned this event back in the fall semester and had been prepping for it since returning to campus.
The Campus Activities Board, most often just referred to as CAB, is the Houghton organization responsible for planning and staging many of Houghton’s events. It consists of five students hired by Student Life and the Director of Student Engagement, AC Taylor (‘14). CAB typically produces one major event each month, in addition to the events on the first weekend of the school year and a handful of other smaller events. Regular events include the After Prism Party, which provides sweets and drinks for campus following the Prism event; Clue Night, in which participants must race to solve a mystery inspired by the board game Clue, in order to win a prize; Film Fest, in which student-made films are showcased and voted on by participants; and Midnight Breakfast, in which Houghton staff and faculty serve students food the hour before midnight on the last day of classes. CAB is also responsible for designing and running each year’s Purple and Gold Week. In addition, CAB produces the weekly Coffee House events that occur each Thursday in Java. Those who regularly attend athletics event may be familiar with CAB Club, the branch of CAB which runs a raffle for a free pizza roughly once a week at an athletics event.
The next big CAB event this semester will be the Game Show, held in the Wesley Chapel January 31st. According to the CAB member taking point on this event, Angelica Robinson (‘22), it will be run in the style of Family Feud, where “teams will compete to win prizes that appeal to all sorts of people.” CAB is also in the process of preparing more events later in the semester, including Clue Night, Roller Skating, and Film Fest.
Despite CAB’s frequent interaction with the student body, it is one of Houghton’s more nebulous organizations. Even for CAB members it required some research to discover exactly how CAB fits into the larger scheme of Houghton organizations. It’s similar to a typical club, in that it is almost entirely student-run and student-driven, but its members are selected by Student Life and paid a stipend at the end of each semester. However, it’s not fully a part of Student Life either, as it is technically a student association and it operates with minimal oversight. Ultimately, CAB is its own unique organization. “It stands between two worlds,” as described by AC Taylor, who is the only faculty member of Student Life who directly interacts with CAB. It provides students with the ability to work with faculty and the college’s resources in order to provide the campus with interesting, community-building events.
However, CAB didn’t always fill this niche in Student Life. AC Taylor described CAB as originally serving as the umbrella name for all student-driven parts of Student Life, performing the function that the Student Programs Office does now. This included the Student Government Association and all other clubs. However, elements of this organization that specifically designed and produced campus events were separated and combined into their own, specific organization, creating the CAB we have today. Now, CAB works independently from other parts of Student Programs and primarily produces events with the sole purpose of engaging students and fostering a sense of community.