By Jess Goodwin

Imagine booking all the shows and events on campus. Like, all of them — not just the weekly shows at the Stood, but Fall Fest and Culture Shock as well. Sounds daunting, right? Before 2004, that was what any brave soul who took on the General Programming had to do. Back in 1994, after the Student Union was disbanded and the PSGA took form, there was no Major Events Coordinator. The duties of composing Fall Fest and Culture Shock fell under the jurisdiction of what was then known as the Vice President of General Programming. In 2002 amendments were made to the Constitution, citing that the GPC was to be hired by the Senate. Interviews were held by the Executive Board, which then chose three candidates who would then appeal to the Senate. The Senate would discuss and, by secret ballot, choose their top pick. In addition, the GPC was assigned two programming assistants, who would “help plan events, bringing new ideas and information to the General Programming Committee.”

It wasn’t until the 2002-2003 school year that the GPC, Offer Ben-Arie, successfully pressed for a division of the job duties; by the next year the position of MEC had been created, the job of which was to create two big events — one in the fall and one in the spring.

Ben-Arie was responsible for more than the creation of the MEC. A 2004 grad. majoring in Anthropology, he decided that there weren’t enough spaces to hold the shows he was booking, so he spearheaded the development of the Student Center (still then known only as the Butler Building) as his senior project.



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