Posters, bulletin boards, fancy designs, and well-thought out slogans all bleed out of the student-run programming board known as Campus Programming and Relations (CPR). This group is responsible for providing the University of Wisconsin-Platteville community with nationally recognized comedians, dollar movie nights, Open Mic Nights and other interesting events throughout the school year.
The weekend of Sept. 1, CPR put on an eventful show by producing a plethora of fun-filled and engaging activities for incoming freshman and returning students to the UW-Platteville campus.
The four-day celebration started with the annual Main Street Scavenger Hunt and picnic in City Park on the 31st; the viewing of The Avengers in the Circle on the 1st; and free movies at Millennium Cinema and cosmic bowling at Pioneer Lanes on the 2nd.
CPR also creates a lot of anticipation for the yearly Welcome Back Fest by bringing nationally recognized bands to campus.
“We typically tend to start planning the concert in the Spring semester before the Welcome Weekend,” said CPR Lead Event Producer and senior criminal justice major Kayla Bradley. “Through our own research, we see what type of music students like. Then once we collect the data, we look for bands that fit those criteria.”
We The Kings and It Boys were due to perform on the 3rd, but rain prevented the bands from taking the stage. Promises of being able to take part in Klement’s Sausage Race were also not as obtainable as some would have liked.
“I was mad because I planned all day to go to the concert,” said freshman business and accounting major Dustin Ditzman. “They didn’t even use the rain site, so I didn’t go.”
No matter, CPR was still able to produce a good event with We The Kings on Monday night. The band members agreed to stick around for a student meet-and-greet in the Markee Pioneer Student Center.
“We asked them if they would be willing to stay for a half hour to sign some autographs,” said Welcome Weekend intern and senior business major Tyler Fisher. “The band stayed for over an hour, were very engaging with the students and they wore the sausage costumes around the MPSC.”
CPR is constantly working to find and create new things the student population at large is looking to do during their time at UW-Platteville. Other events such as a Pillow Fight took place on the 5th, and CPR will be coordinating a Chicago Trip, Disc Golf Tournaments, a paint ball trip, billiards tournaments and multiple other activities for the rest of the academic year. For more information, go to uwplatt.edu/cpr.