The University Program Council (UPC) is amidst discussion of consolidating its three boards into a single governing group as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette transitions between enrollment seasons. The boards include Cultural Connections, Traditions and Student Activities.
The change could reshape how the entire organization operates and oversees student programming in the upcoming year, 2027. Operating as a part of the Student Affairs division, UPC is a student-led organization that plans large-scale events like Homecoming Week and unique experiences like cultural showcases and Silent Disco.
The program is funded through a $5.50 entertainment fee that is charged to students every semester. Due to enrollment rates dropping by 2.5%, according to the UL Lafayette website, the funding has been diminished.
Director of Student Engagement and Leadership, Heidie Lindsey, said, “At this moment, I don’t think it’s necessarily fair with the small pool of money we have, to try to divvy that up between three boards.”
UPC has functioned under three boards for about five years, splitting up the responsibilities of different events, but Lindsey believes it can still run under one board that she has named the Campus Activities Board (CAB). “You’re still going to see the same programs, but probably even better,” she said. The merger was in discussion at the beginning of the academic year and the new structure plans to give more intentionality to the events that occur on campus. “We’re going to be more intentional about offering programs that students really want and finding out what students want,” said Lindsey.
Merging the boards also means reallocating the responsibilities of faculty overseeing the program. According to Lindsey, there are a few positions within Student Engagement and Leadership that have been unfilled, and she aims to utilize the faculty from UPC to help fill in the gaps.
“I just need to sort of reshift some of their time spent,” Lindsey said. “I can’t afford to have one staff member that just does the Student Activities Board . . . I’m going to have them do a little bit more variety in their job.”
In regards to how current faculty are viewing the change, it is uncertain. Currently, there are two assistant directors of Student Engagement and Leadership who are also advisors to two of the UPC boards. Amber Felix, advisor for University Traditions declined to comment, and Candice Dazet, advisor for Cultural Connections, did not respond.
As a student organization, the boards are led by student chairpersons. Cameron Terrell, student chair of the Student Activities Board, shared that there has been little information given to students on what will happen moving forward.
“They didn’t give a reason,” Terrell said. “They kind of kept it surface level.” He said that since losing the advisor for his board, Telvin James, they have been trying to find ways to move responsibilities around.
As it stands, each board creates a different subset of events, about eight per semester. With the merging of boards, Terrell said he thinks some events will get dwindled down.
“It’s already hard to get students to come to events, so now you’re making it even smaller for them…” he said. He has been a part of UPC for two years, and he said that the events have already been very strict with their planning due to the budget constraints from last year.
Other board chairs, Ashley Allen of Traditions and Cye Hebert of Cultural Connections, were contacted as well. Allen declined to comment and Hebert did not respond.
Challenges and concerns are another uncertainty with this change, but Lindsey assures that UPC can function as one unified board instead of three. The variety and number of events are still in question. “We’re still going to have these events, but we’re just going to have to scale down,” she said.
With each board offering unique experiences, such as the Cultural Connections board offering Culture Fest and Student Activities offering Silent Disco, there is a chance some could get cut. This could leave students unsatisfied with events on campus. Inversely, Terrell shared that the combination of the boards may force the UPC students to work on events they may not enjoy. However, the ordinance of these changes are still unknown.
This is a developing story. UPC is still operating under three boards and is currently working towards projects like Mister UL and Culture Fest 2026.