This coming Saturday, the University Programs Council will throw its Spring Swing event in the Newcomb Ballroom from 9pm until midnight. (Never swing-danced before? UPC says no previous dance experience or partner is needed!)
The event was planned by the UPC’s Late Night committee. Mason Wheeler, a second-year on the committee, explained that “we provide alternative programming on typically Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights for students who don’t necessarily want to go out every day of the week, which is lot of students, especially a lot of first years.”
The Spring Swing was successful last year, and the Late Night committee is looking forward to a fun night with a large student turnout. The evening will include a live band, a photo booth, and dance lessons from the UVa Swing Dance club, but the festivities do not stop there.
“We’re having a raffle for some Bodo’s gift cards, and we’re having a costume contest for who comes in the most swing-dance-esque costume,” Wheeler added. “I wore like a kinda flapper style dress and heels last year.”
Planning an event of this scale takes a lot of preparation and organization. Wheeler explained that the club’s experience with this event made the planning process much simpler this year.
“Since we’ve done it in the past, it’s pretty smooth sailing,” she noted. “We just follow the template from past years. We get in contact with the live band [that] we want to utilize, and we try to book Newcomb ballroom because that’s a really fun place to have a swing dance. We’re going to have some hors d’oeuvres from Virginia Catering.”
The event is completely free and is open to all UVa students, who can come and leave at their leisure during the event.
In fact, Wheeler pointed out that students are already (sort of) paying for this event: part of every student’s tuition goes to UPC.
“Part of the way that UPC’s funded is [that] there’s a student activities fee of like $20 or $30 that comes out of everyone’s tuition,” Wheeler told WUVA News. “UPC receives a portion of that and each committee receives a portion of that.”
UPC is a very active club on Grounds with a total of 154 members in UPC spread throughout the many committees. The council is responsible for events like Welcome Week, concerts on Grounds, and Spring Fest, among other events.
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NOTE TO READERS: If you are interested in joining UPC, applications open at the beginning of every academic year.
