NORMAN – The Oklahoma Union Programming Board, an event planning organization run by students, now has several events planned on different days during the week.

The goal for the Programming Board is to make the student union a more social place for students to socialize and get to know knew people. Their main focus is student leadership and encourage the growth of new student leaders in the planning of their events.

The events they have planned have consisted of a haunted house, an escape room and film related events. Every Friday night they have free movies in the Meacham Auditorium. They also bring professional comedians to campus and have a competition for student comedians according to Audrey Hopewell, director of recruiting.

Planning creative and fun events are what they mainly want out of this. They want people connecting and making the Union a more attractive place for students. “We also have an event called Dancing with the stars, which pairs stars on campus with accomplished student dancers,” said Hopewell.

Now the board has more events planned for more days on the week other than just Friday night. Events such as Sound Lounge is on Thursday nights and college con is on Saturdays, coming up on February 17 which will be all day long.

“The Union Programming Board has our own stream of funding that comes directly to us,” said Hopewell. “It’s entirely independent. We don’t get funding from SGA like a lot of other student organizations do because it is part of the Union’s funding.