Southern New Hampshire University, for a relatively small school, has one of the most active and outstanding campus activities programs we have seen to date. In this installment of Campus Activities Live!, we sit down with Heather Lorenz, Director of Campus Programming and Leadership at SNHU. With less than 2000 students, a fairly modest budget (but significant for their size- and derived entirely from student-decided activities fees in tuition) and an incredible amount of student support, CAPE (Coordinators of Activities and Programming Events) is certainly an impressive example of an activities board. There are only 9 executive board members, but Heather tells us that at any given typical weekly CAPE meeting, between 80-120 members are present! An incredible turnout! Consider that at any one of these meetings, up to 5% of the total student population at this school will be present. That is a participation percentage ANY institution would relish.

Heather has been with the school for seven years and in that time has seen first hand the explosive growth in participation in the activities board. She first came to the school to work in residence life. “I worked here for three years in that capacity and then left the university to become a corporate trainer. Once the position I am currently in became vacant, I was approached to see if I would be interested in coming back to SNHU as a part of student activities and leadership development. I jumped on the opportunity. I love this institution and the dedication of its students, so I quit my job, moved back from Boston and have very much enjoyed the last seven years.”

The incredible level of involvement in CAPE on the part of students didn’t happen immediately or miraculously. It took considerable time and dedication from Heather and other committed students and staff. “I definitely think over the years our focus on recruitment and retention has really paid off. It has been a work in progress since I began, but for about three or four years strong it has been an unbelievable transition for them.”

CAPE’s set up is not unlike many other activities boards, with a committee structure acting as the glue for a cohesive group. Only four of the nine members of the executive committee of CAPE have sub-committees under them. The other five simply handle their individual duties alone. Aside from these skeletal members of the board, Heather says anywhere from 80 to120 general members typically show up at one of their weekly meetings. “That fluctuates annually, but the turnout is always good because there is no exclusion whatsoever. The executive board meets every Monday night and immediately following that meeting at 6pm the general CAPE meeting is held. Anyone at the University is welcome to attend; no one has to join or be an official. If it is mid-October and you just happen to have found out about it, you are welcome to join us. That makes for consistently high turnouts. Most of them are regular members we see often, but there are always three or four new faces at every meeting.”

The first of the four executive board members whose duties are extensive enough to require assistance heads the Pub Committee, which determines what entertainment will be booked at the on-campus pub, The Last Chapter Pub. “It is a small venue, holding approximately 200 students and is perfect for a lot of our smaller event planning, whether it be a band, comedian, game show or hypnotist.” Heather says every Wednesday night Bingo enjoys unrivaled popularity at The Last Chapter.

The Major Weekends Committee is responsible for fall, winter and spring weeks, which as on many college campuses, are deep-rooted traditions at SNHU. They enjoy a wide array of novelties, games, food and other fun during these times.

The Music Committee is a heavily influential and active branch of CAPE. “Our campus is definitely into music. Whether it is the local artists who are just trying to make their start in our coffeehouse series or the major national and regional acts that play our larger events, our students always generate huge turnouts at musical events.”

The fourth committee handles special events, which can include anything that is unique. “Their goal is to focus on daytime programming, which is designed to help our commuter students feel involved with student activities. They also focus on diversity and cultural programming, but they can really do anything that is unique or falls outside the scope of the other committees.”

The rest of the nine members have various duties and positions that include a president and vice president, a secretary and a treasurer. There is also a travel and recreation chair, which assumes responsibility for any activities held off-campus and helps garner support for the recreational activities including sports teams.

You may be wondering if the cold and lonely New Hampshire nights play a significant part in bringing 1 in 20 students to any given CAPE event, but Heather says there is much more to it than that. “I think there are a few reasons for our success, but probably number one is the fact that CAPE in general is very invested in the students here. Both my co-advisor and I really empower them. This is their organization and they are completely sanctioned to assess and address the needs of the student body. They are going out there surveying constantly and talking to every student they can to find out what their activities needs may be. This very close connection between the students and the activities board naturally results in high turnouts and student involvement for us.

“Our student leaders within CAPE also make an incredible difference in the examples they set on campus, both within and outside of the activities department. For example, our vice president is involved in five other clubs on campus where she also holds major roles. She is also an honor student. So she has contacts in the student council, the ambassadors, the honors society, the yearbook and other organizations that lend her tremendous influence in getting the students to show up to the events. This applies with all of our executive committee and general board members, for that matter. We really encourage them to get involved as much as they can, to meet new people, bring new and friendly faces around and just to be encouraging to all the students in general.”

For Heather and the other staff, these events are not just shows for entertainment’s sake. They are experiences in planning and execution that allows students to build skill sets they will use in the “real world” after they graduate. “We really concentrate on building students up so they can succeed once they graduate. These students are working with agents and negotiating contracts and handling production issues. We talk about and train a lot on these things as we feel most students will benefit from these lessons, whether or not they decide to go into the entertainment industry.”

Another aspect of CAPE’s success is their relentless marketing of the events they hold. Sometimes, certain popular events can draw in 300-400 students. That is almost 1 out of 4 students enrolled at the university! “They do anything they can to advertise,” Heather says, “they really bust their butts and do anything but just slapping up some posters and calling it a day. There are a hundred examples. One event we had was a themed week, where it was ‘Back To The Playground.’ Everything was ‘old school’– being planned around the theme of when the students were growing up. One interesting way of advertising this event was the students getting lunch boxes, which were given out in the cafeteria, fully stocked. The students worked it out with the cafeteria staff so that the lunches consisted of grilled cheese, PB&J sandwiches, Dungaroos and all the other fun stuff we ate as kids. We even had juice boxes. Inside the lunch boxes were promos for the week’s ‘Back to the Playground’ activities.”

Heather admits that the students often do use some more traditional means of advertising (such as printed media) but even then, they put the special CAPE touch on it. “Instead of using a pre-printed poster, the students will literally sit down for hours to create our own posters and playbills for the events. They will go to arts stores and find all the unique and original ideas for using arts and crafts to make it all really special.” All in all, every CAPE event is meticulously planned, well attended and extremely vested in what the students really want to see and do.

Over the course of our interview with Heather, Campus Activities® Magazine came up as a resource for her and her students over and over again. “We really try to get the board to see the advantages of using all the resources available, including word of mouth from other students, the conferences we send them to and the magazines we receive. Campus Activities® Magazine has been far and above the most entertaining and useful publication for us. Sometimes if there is an article on a particular artist we are interested in, there is nothing more handy than being able to cut out or copy that article to show to the board and our students for their consideration.

“I look through the magazine and constantly see acts that we have booked and will book. It is pretty apparent all of the hottest acts are in your magazine. They are the ones that do well all over the market, so we feel pretty confident in other choices we make based on what we see in the publication. If there is somebody that we have never seen before, that encourages us to make a contact. The quality of entertainment we see in this magazine is always consistent and we are just absolutely thrilled to be included as a part of it. Everyone on campus is talking about it and can’t wait to see the article.”

Southern New Hampshire University is a classic example of what everyone should like to see from small schools across the campus entertainment market. With exciting and unique programs, original ideas in advertising and an unprecedented level of student involvement, SNHU proves the positive results when you do everything by the students and for the students.

For more information on SNHU and CAPE, contact Heather Lorenz at (603) 645-9608