The University Activities Office hosted a town hall meeting in an effort to learn what sort of events students want the University to host, including entertainment, excursions and campus events.

The meeting was held in collaboration with the Undergraduate Student Government. UAO Vice President of Membership Maddie Baumle and USG Vice President Richard Racette.

“We want to use this opportunity to brain storm some ideas for on-campus activities and get a better idea of what students want to do,” Racette said.

This semester, UAO will be hosting a Mardi Gras celebration on Feb. 28, Sibs N Kids weekend March 31-April 2, music artists during Dance Marathon and a de-stress event at the end of April.

The Mardi Gras celebration will take place in the Union Ballroom from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28. Mardi Gras-inspired free food will be offered along with live music.

UAO is also considering hosting another excursion this semester as it did in the fall and previous years.

“Different ideas we have are a trip to Ann Arbor or to Cleveland depending upon what’s going on during the different weekends we’re looking at,” Baumle said.

UAO’s excursions are day bus trips. Most recently, UAO hosted a trip to Dave and Busters. The trip was completely free for students, and included a $10 gaming card. In the fall, UAO hosted a day trip to Chicago.

Suggestions for Cedar Point, Hocking Hills, Washington, D.C. and various water parks were made during the meeting.

UAO’s entertainment programming team took suggestions including a program highlighting the many performing student organizations.

“I think that there’s such a compounded benefit when you go to a student org event,” USG Senator Joseph Tansey said. “UAO could use some of their resources and talent to help boost events that… support our student orgs.”

This event could serve as somewhat of a showcase for student organizations.

“It might be interesting to do something like that even earlier in the year because it could, one, entertain, but it could also serve as a recruitment informational for new or even continuing students,” Dean and USG Advisor Jodi Webb said.

According to Baumle, UAO has teamed with student organizations in the past, including the Plastic Shatners improv group and We Are One Team, and seeks to do the same in the future with other organizations.

UAO’s OrgSync page also has a collaboration request form that organizations can fill out to collaborate in planning an event with UAO.

Discussion on Monday night also turned to choosing performers who have wide appeal to students.

“The hard part is that wide-appeal is expensive,” one UAO member said.

In an attempt to find out what performers students would like to see visit the University, UAO has made a survey and published it to its Facebook page.

“We’ve recently added inclusivity to our mission statement,” Baumle said. “So we’re definitely looking at the broader spectrum (of genres).”

UAO’s social media handle for Twitter and Instagram is @bgsu_UAO. UAO can also be found and contacted through Facebook, OrgSync, its University website and its email: [email protected].

“Feel free to reach out to us at any point,” Baumle said. “We’re definitely here to give back to all of you.”