What was previously called the Student Activities Board, or SAB, is now identified as CAT PAC, Wildcat Programming and Activity Council.
CAT PAC, consisting of students planning and hosting activities throughout the school year for Wayne State College students, decided to change their branding from SAB to CAT PAC after reflecting on the last school year. Liz Liston, the new executive director for CAT PAC, explains the reasoning behind the change, and why the team decided on CAT PAC.
“The reason for the change and rebranding from SAB to CAT PAC was because of the change in positions,” Liston said. Last year, there were multiple positions within SAB, including a Wellness Programming Director, Diversity, Wildcats Unplugged, and many more. Liston said shifting from having multiple positions to just a few helped bring the team together as a unit more than just individual positions within the organization.
“Instead of the executive director and the many positions, it would be just an executive director and event planners,” Liston said. “This way helped us connect, communicate, and work more efficiently without the titles that we had to stick to in the past.” While this group is focused on bringing other students together through the events they hold, they also focus on being able to work productively as a team. Without putting work into building their team up, the events wouldn’t be able to happen.
Amy White, advisor for CAT PAC, had started thinking of a new rebranding for SAB last spring, after some students attended the National Association for Campus Activities Conference. By having multiple conversations with many schools, White said those involved in previously SAB started thinking about a possible name change and what their rebranding would look like. It was brought to their attention the idea of a ‘board’ was a thing of the past.
“The motivation behind the change was that our office is all-encompassing of all student engagement across campus,” White said. “Our office houses campus programming, homecoming, family day, new student orientation – a wide variety of engagement opportunities for students.”
Additionally, their motivation for changing the name came from how the students perceived SAB.
“We had taken notice that last year, primarily, a lot of students only saw us as ‘this is the SAB office’ or that we only do bingo nights,” White said. “Our office is so much more than that.”
Even though the new name has only been in place for a few weeks now, White, as well as the other CAT PAC members, are already seeing a shift in the overall function of the organization – from student to student.
“It brought together the already campus programming that’s happening,” White said. “To push us forward, to have us be the best organization, as far as providing free entertainment for students, by students. That’s the motivation.”
For the upcoming school year, Liston is the new executive director and Anja Oelofse and Alondra Castillo are the two event planners. White remains as the advisor for CAT PAC. CAT PAC will be looking to bring live entertainment, crafts, giveaways, and more to students on campus throughout this school year and the years to come.
