Auburn’s University Program Council, UPC, hosted their annual block party on Thursday as a part of welcoming students back to campus. UPC provided pizza and hosted a live performance by the band COIN.
“We always do it the first full week of classes. We changed it to Thursday this year to have a better turnout,” said Briana Carter, president of UPC.
“Each year we have an involvement browse and ask organizations to come out to get students involved in other organizations," Carter said. "Students get to meet organizations, meet other people, grab food... and also enjoy the beautiful night out as it's kind of like the end of summer."
Along with Carter's efforts, Alexa Russell, the Director of the Tiger Night’s Committee, organized the specifics of the event, including the choice of the band.
“We started planning this event pretty early, we started planning in March-ish. We went through student surveys to see what kind of genres and bands the students wanted." Russell said. "We also based our choice of COIN on the success that Judah and the Lion had last year. They were similar to COIN in that they were an up and coming band the students seemed to really like them.”
Both Carter and Russell were excited with how the event turned out. “I think it went really well. We had 794 students come out and a few stragglers probably got in, so around 800 students. COIN was amazing. The students really got involved. They knew the words and songs and everything.” Carter said.
"I think the band was really enthusiastic and put on a good show,” Russell said.
Ben Pierce, the faculty advisor of UPC, was impressed with the turnout in addition to the work that the leaders of UPC put in. “I’ve worked on events with UPC before and this one was particularly well put together. They knew what they had to do in advance. They created an exceptionally detailed day-of schedule with assignments and a diagram of space." Pierce said.
"They made sure everyone had a job and made sure things got done on time. And things got done exactly on time, down to the minute which I hadn’t seen before.”
Avery Smith and Katie Kohler, freshmen at Auburn, attended the event for exactly the reasons that UPC held the event. “We’re trying to go out and meet people as much as we can and this was a great way to do it. Also, I’ve seen COIN before and they’re really good which was a big reason we came.” Smith said.
Along with Block Party, Russell and UPC’s Tiger Nights Committee will organize and host multiple events open to students and faculty. “We’re having Jingle Bell Jam in November and Spring Fling sometime in the Spring," Russell said.
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