By Yudong (Dora) Wang
As a member of UIUC community, you’ve must been to Illini Union – the heart of our campus. Events and programs are held in the Union throughout the year: concerts, comedy shows, movie nights, and lots of other fun activities. However, are you aware that those entertaining events are planned and run by an organized and energetic group called Illini Union Board (http://union.illinois.edu/get-involved/illini-union-board)? IUB, short for Illini Union Board, is dedicated to overlooking and supporting all events and programs taking place in the Illini Union. For me it’s like the air in the union: you can hardly find any clues of advertising about IUB, but each single event relies on IUB to coordinate and facilitate.
By now IUB might still sound new to you, so let’s go discuss activities within the Illini Union first. Every Fall semester before classes start, Illini Union hosts the Welcome Week and they have special events every day during that week. They play free movies on the quad or inside the building, hold masquerade balls, invite artists to give a performance, throw late night fun games, and so on. After school starts, their schedules become much less intense, yet there are still events every week, especially over the weekends. If there are any special holidays or festivals in that month, Illini Union will launch some themed events to celebrate and promote that holiday or festival accordingly.
Even when school is not in session, Illini Union is open for any type of enjoyable events that aims to bring together people staying on campus over the break and make them feel at home. For example, this summer the 2014 FIFA World Cup made a splash in all four corners of the world. In order to create excitement for the games, Illini Union invited students to come to the Union and watch live soccer matches on TV.
I’ve been to a lot of events in the Union, and those events just increased my desire to attend again, every time as I am leaving that fun place! My first experience with the Illini Union events was the International Students Rec Room Party. This event [co-sponsored by ISSS] is basically a free party held on the basement level of the union. Each year during Welcome Week, first year international students get the chance to play with all the gaming equipment inside the recreation room for free. International students have fun playing games while mingling and socializing with other new international students. I went there in my freshman year, and enjoyed bowling and various video games. I met new friends and took a break from the overwhelming check-in and orientation processes.
I’ve also been to the Haunted House (http://union.illinois.edu/~/media/Sites/Union/Images/Feature%20Slides/IUB/IUB_OctoberIllinites_web.ashx) on Halloween (http://union.illinois.edu/~/media/Sites/Union/Images/Feature%20Slides/IUB/IUB_Halloweentown_web.ashx), watched popular movies with a bunch of my friends (http://union.illinois.edu/get-involved/illini-union-board/calendar-and-announcements/friday-night-films-series), and attended magic shows held in the coffee courtyard. Have you ever attended any of these events in the union? If not, you definitely should go there and experience them yourself. It’s a place to hang out with friends and refresh yourself from the heavy load of school work.
Thanks to Illini Union Board, members of our community can always find a place to go and enjoy their time together with friends. I’m impressed by how friendly and supportive the facilitators from IUB are and how they commit themselves in making the Illini Union a better place for people to relax and have fun. You don’t see obvious signs of the IUB office, but the existence of the programs they organize are strongly felt on campus. They don’t need to advertise themselves, they just present and promote better programs for us to enjoy, one after another. The Illini Union Board speaks for itself.