A. Ray Olpin University Union

The Union Programming Council (UPC)  is a student-run organization based out of the A. Ray Olpin University Union. Our organization is comprised of seven unique boards that create various events, fundraisers, and resources for our student body to utilize. These boards include Arts and Special Events, Community Service, Crimson Nights, Development, the Feed U Pantry, The Freshman Ambassador Board, and Marketing. The purpose of UPC is to create opportunities, events, and resources in order to improve our student body’s campus experience.

Keeping true to our purpose, UPC has had great success this year! During the summer, our Marketing and Development boards helped create this year’s copy of the Your Campus Life student handbook; this has various campus information, coupons, maps, and articles for students to enjoy. Our Community Service board kicked off the fall semester at Welcome Week.  Hundreds of students received information from forty-four student groups as well as twenty-two paid vendors. Later in the month of September, our Freshman Ambassador board brought on thirty-four freshmen into the UPC family, this semester, they have had two greatly successful events this semester. Our Arts and Special Events board helped us celebrate the beginning of fall with their annual Oktoberfest event, complete with an authentic Oktoberfest band, bratwursts, and root beer floats. The Crimson Nights board held two very successful events, Crimson Pier & The House of Crimson Horror for Halloween; thousands of students around the state attended and enjoyed dancing, pizza, activities such as laser tag, mini golf, and inflatable bounce houses. Lastly, our Feed U Pantry board has seen major improvements, the pantry has increased their open hours from 10 to 50 per week and has assisted over 150 clients per month! Along with this, we have created relationships with the Utah Food Bank, local grocery stores, and even our Edible Campus Gardens to gain the best produce possible for our students. The Feed U board has also hosted cooking demonstrations events in partnership with Chartwells to educate students by providing cheap yet delicious options for students to cook at home. This spring UPC will continue to bring fun activities and programming around campus, aiming to create opportunities for students to be engaged and enjoy their campus life! 

Written by: Austin Matsuura