Above photo: The Harborside Activities Board is responsible for many engaging events on campus, including concerts, movie showings and the annual cardboard boat race. Emily Wunderlich | The Crow’s Nest
By Martha Rhine
The Harborside Activities Board is a student-run programming group responsible for organizing events at USF St. Petersburg — from Week of Welcome to homecoming to Casino Night.
The board consists of six paid directors who manage different areas. There is a director for traditions to manage USFSP Week and homecoming, and a director for films to manage Screen on the Green and Campus Movie Fest.
There are other directors for stage acts, marketing and design. Each director has a committee of volunteers who help plan and execute the events.
HAB President Kevin Patrick described the year as an innovative one: The directors were challenged to think outside the box and come up with new ideas, resulting in new activities and improvements to events.
HAB had the first ever Best Friend Game Show and two free concerts: Hip Hop Duke and Dylan Dunlap. The Screen on the Green movie event for “Pitch Perfect 3” featured a student karaoke competition and an acapella group.
Some of the changes were in regard to venue, such as the fashion show that moved from the ballrooms to the The Edge.
The monthly HAB Market helped introduce the board to students and promote their activities through swag like HAB hats, pop sockets and portable chargers.
Despite these efforts, Patrick said low attendance was their leading issue. The university has around 6,000 students, yet their events averaged around 100 people in the fall semester.
“Getting more students to come to the events, that is always a struggle,” Patrick said. “The events are very innovative and they’re fun and they’re entertaining and we spend a lot of money on them and then we’ll have like maybe 70 people.”
According to Patrick, HAB’s primary demographic is first- and second-year students, as they’re normally the ones seeking out the college experience.
All HAB activities are open to faculty and university staff. The range makes it challenging to balance appealing to young students eager for new experiences and keeping events professional for faculty. Patrick believes that PG-13 movies and clean music can be disenchanting for students looking for a college party experience.
Next year, the directors hope to better gauge prospective attendance so they can cater to students. They also talked about having cash bars that serve alcoholic beverages to those of legal drinking age.
Marketing initiatives are vital to carrying out successful HAB events. In addition to the monthly HAB Market, a marketing street team is in development.
The street team is a branded group whose job will be to engage students where they are.
Patrick would like to see upperclassmen and commuter students get more involved, which would require HAB to be more visible and approachable on campus.
Despite the challenges, HAB has had its share of successes. According to Patrick, the bond between this year’s board members helped boost morale when things didn’t go their way.
“The board itself this year was so bonded together it was like a family,” he said.
A few of the events went better than expected. Campus Movie Fest had more participants than ever before, due to a collaboration with St. Petersburg College and Eckerd College. Patrick said the partnerships could be useful in the future.
The success of rapper and spoken word artist Hip Hop Duke indicated students want more on campus concerts in the future.
Kelli Carmack, vice president of the board, had an optimistic view of the past year. Like Patrick, Carmack said the bond between the board was one of the top highlights.
“We’ve never had a stronger board. We call ourselves the HAB Fam for a reason,” Carmack said in an email. “We’re all super close and really root for each other and are always there to help, inside and outside of HAB.”
Carmack said that renting out AMC Sundial 20 for the premiere of “Black Panther” with The Black Student Alliance was a noteworthy event. However, she did acknowledge that low attendance throughout the year was discouraging.
She said that future marketing efforts should be broadened outside the usual places, as most efforts are online or at The Reef. This responsibility falls to Carmack as she takes over as HAB’s president in the fall.
