Mission Statement and History

The Campus Programming Board was established in the Lawrence University Community Council (LUCC) by-laws as a standing organization in the early 1990's, but was only realized during the 1999-2000 school year as a group of students came together.  The Campus Programming Board represents the nexus of various programming organizations, joined by additional students interested in programming for the campus.  That year, they chose a new name for campus marketing purposes: the Student Organization for University Programming (SOUP).

The purpose of the Campus Programming Board is to oversee and bring together groups and individuals on campus concerned with campus-wide programming, to share human and other resources in an effort to present programs, and to develop a balanced calendar of activities which complements the academic calendar and enriches the Lawrence experience for all students.  The board plans a wide range of activities and events for the campus, and coordinates major traditional events such as Homecoming, Mardi Gras, and Celebrate!  The board also administers the Alyssa Paul Maria Fund for Campus Entertainment, an endowed fund designed to stimulate and support creative campus programming initiatives.

The Campus Programming Board was originally conceived as a coalition of existing committees and organizations, each remaining essentially autonomous, but collaborating with other groups in calendar planning and cooperative programming.  The current structure, which continues to evolve, is a hybrid between this model and a more traditional model of a unified board with various programming committees.  SOUP includes the Coffeehouse Committee, and involves representatives from film and music groups at times.  What used to be the Campus Events Committee,  University Events Committee, and Homecoming organizations are now wholly subsumed within SOUP.  In addition to subcommittees dealing with Celebrate!, Homecoming, Winter Formal, and Mardi Gras, SOUP will continue to coordinate comedy, novelty, and variety events, dances, concerts, speakers, etc.