This week, justArts spoke with Robin Donohoe ’19 and Courtney Page ’19, who are members of the Campus Activity Board excutive board.

JustArts: Tell me a bit about your organization.

Robin Donohoe: CAB, Campus Activity Board, organizes the large scale events on campus. Springfest is the largest event that we do,  but we also have a big event in the fall that was called “Fun in the Sun.” … We have done movie marathons. We had a karaoke night on St Patrick’s Day. So just like a lot of different, fun events on campus that’s open to everyone.

JA:  What was the process of finding the Springfest performers?

RD:  So this is my third year involved with Springfest and this is Courtney’s second year. Courtney is the Springfest chair and I am the vice president of CAB. There’s a survey that goes out every mid-fall, and that’s where we get our guide for we wanted Springfest to look like. We usually look for most popular genre. From the people who had taken the survey, which is like a good one third of the Brandies population, it has been rap for the past couple of years, so that is why Springfest has a rap headliner. ... Then we select the artists. 

Courtney Page: So when selecting artist, we coordinate with our agents Dan and Jon. We work with them closely, looking at what artists are available for our day of show.

JA: Do you think your organization receives sufficient amount of support from the school?

RD: Yeah. We’d always like more money if we can have it to get a bigger artist, but A-Board is pretty [good] at giving it to us. ... We work directly with the head of student activity for these events, and Dennis Hicks did a really great job supporting Courtney.

JA: In the past two years, many hip-hop and pop artists were invited to perform. Has it been considered to bring other genres to the event?

RD: I think it just goes back to the survey, cause that’s the best way we can figure out data. When I was at C-store, some kids want Imagine Dragons, but A, we can’t get Imagine Dragons and B, it’s not what the people say they want [in the survey]. These past two years, Courtney and I have done a really good job to try to get more female artists at Springfest. So the supporting acts for all of last year and all of this year have been females. Last year was all indie pop and this year is pop rap. So we were taking from the survey and try to make it as open to everyone as we can. 

JA: Do you think the student community has given you guys enough feedbacks through the survey? 

RD: There’s a couple different options to get involved in CAB. … Courtney does have a Springfest committee. We also do have open CAB meetings every week that are available to everyone. So if someone wants to come in, we do have those open meetings every week through this entire year and last year. So if they have any idea for not just Springfest but any of our CAB events they can bring it to us.

CP: So my Springfest committee this year is seven people. And there is an application and selecting process for it. And basically for me to select the best candidates that I think would be good leaders, and also responsible in terms of time management, getting things done around Springfest. So I think it is important that students recognize that there’s ways to get involved and change it [if they have complaints]. 

 —Luke Liu