The Lion’s Roar / Jonathan Rhodes
The first CAB After Dark event  by the Campus Activities Board was held last Thursday at the Pennington. Mostly  freshmen students gathered together to end the first week of classes with a bang. Students tie-died shirts, ate cotton candy and danced to popular music until the end of the event. CAB had the help of student organization Made Men to hand out T-shirts. 

Students from all around campus showed up at the Pennington for the first ever CAB After Dark event to finish the first week of classes. 

The Campus Activities Board provided free pizza, cotton candy and tie-dye T-shirts at the event. There was also a dance floor with music by DJ Cloud, a photo booth with different costumes for students to wear and bingo inside the Pennington.

“I actually came up with the idea myself,” said CAB student assistant Julie Entremont. “I wanted something for the incoming freshmen and all the on campus students and also other students to come in for the first week and have this big block party theme. I wanted to throw all kinds of ideas into this one event. Kind of like our traditional events like Strawberry Jubilee and Gumbo Ya Ya.” 

CAB After Dark had to be rescheduled from its original date because of the flooding and the delay of the start of classes.

“It was actually scheduled last Wednesday but since the flooding, we knew that not a lot of people would show up,” said Entremont. “Even though they did have students on campus, that’s why we did have other little events during that week.”

CAB did not do everything themselves. They had help from Made Men who distributed the tie-dye T-shirts and participated in the event.

“Made Men stands for mentoring African-Americans to develop excellence,” said Chad Jackson, a sophomore communication major. “It’s CAB’s event, but we decided to cosponsor it and help each other out. After all of the flooding, we just tried to get all of the students together. It’s the last day of school of the week, so have fun. We got tie-dye shirts, music and a photo booth. We really tried to center this around freshmen so they can have a positive first week.”

CAB enjoys cosponsoring with other student organizations and helping them to gain popularity around campus.

“We love other organizations to help us out,” said Entremont. “It does get their name out like Made Men helped us with this one. I offered to help with the tie-dye shirts, and they also came up with that idea and I think it’s really awesome.”  

A foam pit was going to be used at the event, but unfortunately they could not get the pit to work. However, it did not take too much away from the students.

“I admit I did not think it would be as fun as it is,” said Helana Marcel, a freshman business major. “I was really looking forward to the foam pit, but it’s not working, so it’s kind of a downfall. But, everything else is really fun. The photo booth; me and my friend had a blast at and the tie-dye. I’m just glad it didn’t get all over my white converse.”

Older students on campus liked the new event and how the block party feel was something different from CAB.

“It is one of the most liveliest ones we have had,” said Rashaan Albert, a senior engineering and industrial management major. “A lot of people are getting more involved like freshman and everything. Throughout it all, I have really enjoyed myself. I will probably be attending more events like this if I can since it’s my senior year.”   

CAB Coordinator Nick Elliott thought the event went very well for its first run.

“We didn’t really have too many expectations because we have never done it in the past,” said Elliott. “We would like to do it again. The majority of it was Julie’s idea. I was there just to help her whenever she needed it. Everything was Julie. I was just the advisor for it.”

The Lion’s Roar / Jonathan Rhodes
CAB After Dark was originally scheduled two weeks ago, but was moved to a later date due to the flooding which kept some students from being able to reach campus.