Our Story: The History of UPC
The Union Program Council began shortly after the Nebraska Union opened in 1938. The programming focused on the Union and consisted primarily of speakers and films. Prior to 1978, programming was centered on two committees, the Sadie Hawkins Dance Committee and the Cornstock Committee.
In 1977, there were 50 student organizations that received student fee money. They applied for monies, which were allocated by the Fee Allocation board, which was composed of students, faculty, and staff. The allocations ultimately went through the Board of Regents. A Board of Regents task force was put together to review University Programs and Facilities Fees (UPFF) money. The original intent was to eliminate the way student fee money was spent and create a new, more efficient way of spending student fee dollars. From this task force came the Fund A and Fund B categories.
In January 1978, The Board of Regents passed a new student fee policy that stipulated only the student government, student newspaper and major programming organization would receive student fee support. At the same time, a change was made in the speakers’ policy that prohibited any student fee support for political and ideological speakers.
The Student Activities Office was assigned to the Nebraska Union during the fall of 1977 and the new Student Activities and Programs office opened during the spring of 1978 in Room 200 of the Nebraska Union. The staff renamed the new office Campus Activities and Programs to avoid the acronym for Student Activities and Programs. A student task force analyzed the results of the new Regents’ policy and created the structure for the newly named University Program Council to be advised by Campus Activities and Programs.
From here, the Campus Activities and Programs (CAP) office was created in 1978. Another task force was formed and decided to include the Culture Center and Women’s Resource Center in the CAP office. They also recommended having a committee look at program councils that ultimately became University Program Council (UPC) City, UPC East, and UPC Culture Center. The Board of Regents established the Funds Allocation Committee (FAC) for student fee money to be available to recognized student organizations.
In 1983, the Major Performing Arts Committee, headed by Ron Bowlin, was receiving money and students decided they needed student input, so KLPAC (Kimball Lied Performing Arts Committee) was formed. At this time, the organization Corncobs and Tassels lacked the money to fund Homecoming and it became a committee in UPC City. In 1984, United Ministries sold the Common Place to the University and the former UPC Culture Center Committee became “Tri Culture.” In 1986, the Asian American Committee was added to Tri Culture and the name was changed to the American Minority Council.
In the 1989-90 school year, students decided to bring UPC City, UPC East, and the American Minority Council together. This structure contained two sub-councils with 20 committees split between them. Each sub-council had a Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, and a Publicity executive. The President and Public Relations executives helped take care of UPC as a whole, and the FAC chair provided financial support for student organizations which were not funded by student fees in order to allow them to promote their initial programming.
In 1992, the University Program Council created a new structure that eliminated the sub-councils and consisted of the President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer(s), Public Relations, and eighteen committees.
In 1993, the University Program Council was again restructured. This new structure eliminated the eighteen committees and consisted of six executives: President, Vice President, Programming Secretary, Secretary, Financial Manager, Public Relations Chairperson, and ten to fifteen Event Directors.
In 1998, the University Program Council was yet again restructured to provide for specialization among UPC members. The system of Event Directors was eliminated and replaced with a system of nine committees. The position of Public Relations Chairperson was eliminated from the officer level and two new officer positions were added: Membership Coordinator and Historian.
In 2001, the University Program Council was restructured in order to provide members with a sense of ownership of the UPC and to evenly divide the workload among the members. The nine committees were combined to a system of three committees: Entertainment, Diversity, and Public Relations. The Entertainment Committee was formerly the three separate Committees: Novelty, Music, and Films. The Diversity Committee was formerly the three separate Committees: Forums, Gender Issues, and Minority Programs. Both the Entertainment and Diversity Committees now encompass the former East Campus Committee. The eight executive officers include the three Committee Chairs, President, Vice President, Financial Manager, Secretary, and Membership Coordinator. This restructure encourages Committee Chairs to collaborate and combine resources to create more dynamic events.
In fall 2003, NU Directions (UNL's campus-community coalition working to reduce high- risk student drinking) asked the University Program Council to take over the late night programming initiative. Originally created in response to a need for late-night programming and funded by the UNL Parents Association, events were to occur in the Nebraska Unions between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. on Friday nights. At first, University Night Life acted as an extension of the University Program Council. Programming was to be a combined effort of UPC members, Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs), UNL departments and/ or specified sponsors. Because the Parents Association only provided a one-time $4,000 grant, UPC officially included University Night Life as one of four programming committees and the following year, requested a $6,000 budget from the Committee for Fee Allocation. The University Night Life Committee positioned itself as a regular form of free or low-cost weekend entertainment. Events included, but were not limited to, theme nights, student performances, concerts, movies, games, comedians, or presentations.
In spring 2004, the University Program Council voted to combine the Entertainment and Diversity accounts within the 7800 – UPFF Programming Account. This change was created to further the idea that events should be based on quality and not on quantity or price. During this same semester the UPC also voted to change the name of the Diversity Committee to Diversity/Education Committee to better represent the committee’s goal of programming to enrich campus education on a variety of topics. This also changed the Diversity Chair’s title to Diversity/Education Chair.
Per a contractual agreement with the Nebraska Unions, Burger King was required to donate a portion of their profits to student programming. Beginning in the spring of 2006, Burger King had $10,288 available to fund late night programming in the Nebraska Union. These events had to be held in the City Union and feature Burger King’s food and beverages.
In fall 2009, the University sponsored a new organization known as Campus Night Life, which was geared at events on Thursday and Friday evenings between the hours of 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. This was similar to the University Program Council’s Night Life Committee. Since both organizations programmed similar events for the same target audience, the University Program Council decided to co-sponsor late night events with CNL. During the spring of 2010 the University Program Council discussed the possibilities of having a representative on CNL and reallocating Night Life Funds to the Entertainment Committee budget. After the fall of 2010 the Night Life Committee Chair position was dissolved from the Executive Board of the University Program Council.
Throughout its history, the University Program Council has been an active member of the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) and has had several students and advisors serve in both regional and national leadership positions. The University Program Council has long recognized the need for diverse programming and is constantly evaluating trends in campus activities, in order to better serve all of the students at the University of Nebraska –Lincoln.