Loyola students now have even less of an excuse to be twiddling their thumbs on Friday nights because Loyola Late Nights have kicked into high gear.
Loyola Late Nights, the official late night weekend programming sponsored on campus, have added an increased scope of events to their calendar.
According to Courtney Williams, assistant director of campus activities, Loyola Late Night events will not only be hosted by the office of co-curricular programs, but also by other campus offices such as Residential Life, the University Counseling Center, Mission & Ministry, and Athletics and Wellness.
In addition to the regularly scheduled Friday and Saturday night events, Loyola Late Nights will now be hosting activities on Thursday nights as well.
Cissy Petty, vice president of student affairs, said involving more departments on campus in the Late Night programming will allow students the opportunity to get more engaged in campus life.
“The combination of having several signature programs such as iLIVE, PACKport, sophoMORE Initiative and the expansion of athletics have all added to a new sense of community and belonging at Loyola. The renewed vision for Late Night at Loyola should prove to be entertaining and should also provide an alternative to other evening events,” Petty said.
According to English writing senior and University Programming Board president Margaret Vienne, UPB has also experienced a slight restructuring to ensure a variety of events, including late nights, will be available to students.
“We’re trying to do a bigger assortment of events. We’ve restructured our committees, and each committee is in charge of coming up with a specific type of event so we’re not just planning all concerts or all comedians, for example,” Vienne said.
In addition to its traditional events such as Third Friday, UPB will put more of an emphasis on things like engaging students with the city of New Orleans and helping to raise school spirit on campus.
“We’ll be passing out New Orleans Po-Boy Festival vouchers and sponsoring events like viewings of Saints games in Satchmo’s with game-day food. That way, students can get connected to New Orleans whether they’re staying on campus or not,” said Vienne.
“We would like to see students making New Orleans their ‘home away from home’ and becoming active and engaged citizens. The University Programming Board and Student Government Association will offer several opportunities to continue doing this through multiple excursions and speakers throughout the semester,” Williams said.
This past week, UPB and SGA brought in Jessica Jackley, the CEO and founder of one of the United State’s first micro-lending companies, to speak to students on campus.
UPB will host the Upright Citizen’s Brigade on campus later this month, which is an improv comedy group that served as a start-up for comedy legends such as Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.
Traditional UPB events such as Third Friday and “Sneaux,” which involves covering the front lawn in faux snow for students to play in, will be back in full swing this semester as well.
“I think it’s great that co-curricular is trying to come up with more alternatives for our incredibly diverse freshmen class. New Orleans has a lot to offer, but sometimes the night life can be a little intimidating, so I think this a great way to show our new students what Loyola has to offer them,” said Bridget Kratz, economics senior.
“I’m not sure if I would have gone to events like that as a freshman, but I appreciate that there are options,” Kratz said.
Williams hopes that the innovative programming from UPB, SGA and the various offices under the student affairs umbrella will help to increase student involvement and create a deeper sense of community among students.
“We continue to hope that each student become actively involved in at least one student organization or community engagement initiative. I would love for all students to proudly and confidently say, ‘I’m Part of the Pack!’ ” Williams said.
Shannon Donaldson can be reached at [email protected]
