UPB History

Capen Cinema Board (also later known as UPB's Redbird Cinema Committee) was established in the early 1900s, and is the longest running part of the UPB.

In addition to Capen Cinema Board, other committees also exsisted under an umbrella group. Committee identities were much stronger than the collective identity though and all decision-making happened at the committee level.

Other committees were:

• The Student Homecoming Planning Committee, which coordinated homecoming week celebrations.
• Forum Committee brought speakers, educational programs, and a coffee house series.
• Special Events Committee brought festivals to the quad.
• LaRitz brought college-level bands and smaller performers.
• Entertainment Committee, known as "EC," brought large-scale concerts and comedians.
• Student Center Board hosted smaller scale and college circuit performers.

A committee was formed to see if it was possible for these committees to all work together in a more cohesive manner. After a lot of brainstorming, research, benchmarking, and hard work...the University Program Board was formed!

A year after the creation of the UPB, similar transitions resulted in the creation of the Dean of Students (DoS) Office, originally Student Legal Services, Student Dispute Resolution Services, Office of Student Life, Bone Student Center, and Office of Intercultural Programs and Services. The UPB was placed under the Programming Unit of the DoS.

The first UPB had 1 president – Darion Page, 4 Vice Presidents, and 9 Committees. This Board also had 3 advisors. Since 2004 a few committees have changed names, and in 2007 the Redbird Graphics Committee was added.

Originally, the UPB Office was located in the Student Services Building. The UPB moved into its new office in the Bone Student Center and opened on February 2, 2005.

In only UPB’s second year, the Spring of 2006, the UPB won Large Registered Student Organization of the Year, as well as several awards and nominations for programming.

Since then, the Board has gone through several different assessments and rearrangements. The Board was re-organized just before the 2008-2009 year with 1 President, 1 Vice President, 4 Directors, and 10 Chairpersons.

In October of 2008, the UPB won the Excellence in Programming award through National Association of Campus Activities (NACA).  The award recognized UPB as the best program board in the region.

After a constitution review in 2011 the ad-hoc committee felt it was in the Board’s best interest to divide the responsibilities of the Vice President into the Vice President of Operations and the Vice President of Finance while also combining the Director of Membership with the Director Development for the new position of Director of Membership Development.

In spring 2013 the structure of the board changed again with the board consisting of: President, Vice President, Director of Finance, Director of Operations, Director of Marketing & Promotions, Director of Membership Development (Exec Board) / Graphic Design Chair, Public Relations Chair, Social Media Chair (Marketing Chairs) / Arts & Entertainment Chair, Center Stage Chair, Enrichment Chair, Social & Recreation Chair, Spirit & Traditions Chair (Programming Chairs).

The creation of a constitutional review committee in fall 2015 lead to another structure change decided upon in spring 2016 and effective fall 2016. This change redefined the Marketing Team as the newly created Director of Marketing and Communication and Marketing and Promotions Chairperson positions in addition to the Graphic Design Chairperson- thus eliminated the positions of Director of Marketing and Promotions, Social Media Chairperson, and Public Relations Chairperson.