CUAB busy making plans for the school year

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story misinterpreted a quote from Summer Programming Board Member Arefa Bacchus. There will be no homecoming concert this year. The story and headline have been updated to reflect that change. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

Campus life may have died down over summer break, but new Carolina Union Activities Board President Neil Harwani has been nonstop since May.

The junior has led the summer programming committee, which has kept busy with movie screenings and free ice cream.

Harwani has also made time to think ahead to the upcoming school year.

“We went to a conference called the National Association for Campus Activities and we booked a lot of different acts, such as spoken word acts — Neil Hilborn, who’s a spoken word artist who talks about mental health in his works, and we’re going to partner that hopefully with an art gallery that showcases a lot of mental health related pieces, and that’ll be in October,” he said. “We also have Elizabeth Acevedo, who is a spoken word artist who talks about Hispanic heritage, and she’ll be performing for Hispanic Heritage Month in September. We have a step show in early spring. That’s Step Afrika!, and they’ve actually performed at the White House, so that’s pretty cool.”

CUAB drew controversy last year when they did away with the Homecoming concert in favor of focusing on the spring Jubilee, which featured Carolina football alumnus-turned-country artist Chase Rice.

The activities board spent $77,000 booking Chase Rice for the 2016 concert compared to $80,750 spent in 2014-15 between Homecoming and Jubilee performers.

Rice was present on a poll released by CUAB in September to help determine the Jubilee artist. According to a CUAB document, he only received 81 of the total 1,580 votes.

The Weeknd was the most popular choice with 667 votes.

Despite initial misgivings, the Chase Rice concert sold 3,030 of its 4,900 tickets.

Aside from the concert, Harwani said CUAB committees are being restructured to emphasize homecoming week’s festivities and unite small event planners in the organization this year.

Senior Boateng Kubi hopes to keep the bond between CUAB and the Student Union strong as CUAB’s new Carolina board of directors chairperson.

Kubi served as the vice president of outreach for CUAB last year, which he said has helped him understand how the organization serves student life.

“We’re essentially going to be navigating student life at Carolina and overseeing the operations of the Union,” Kubi said. “I realize that CUAB is one of the premier student organizations on campus and a vital part of the Carolina community, so having them within the Union and being from CUAB I’m better able to support them as they plan incredible events throughout the year.”

CUAB will also maintain its focus on diversity and graduate student initiatives. It plans on achieving that mission by putting their programming schedule at students’ fingertips. Students can now receive text alerts on upcoming events by texting @cuab to 81010.

“We had over 34,000 students in attendance last year at all of our programs, so we’re really hoping to up that,” Harwani said.

“It’s already amazing, but we’d like to build on our current successes.”

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