The Office of Campus Activities & Programs (CAP Center) is inviting all University students to apply to be a founding member of the CAP Center Core, a program that furthers leadership development and community involvement through event planning.

CAP Center Core will replace Activities & Campus Events (ACE). ACE was the largest student-led organization on the University’s campus, which organized and hosted several events each weekend. Current ACE President Ashley Vecchio ’20 says that CAP Center Core does not want to be marked as the “new ACE,” so that students “can view this new program as its own thing.”

“Changing from ACE to the CAP Core is also bridging the gap to show that these students work directly with the CAP Center to provide events options that are open to all Bucknell students,” Assistant Director of Campus Activities & Programs Molly Burkholder said.

The central difference between the two clubs is that while ACE was open to all students, the CAP Center Core is an application-only board that will better fit the event planning process and adhere to the larger needs of the University community. The structural change was a student-led initiative to further incorporate student members in the event planning and execution process. “We are really excited about this new opportunity to give students more control over event planning on campus and give them the autonomy to develop new ideas,” Vecchio said.

The President and Vice President of Marketing will lead the board of students as they are tasked with building a marketing campaign for the semester of events. There are then seven Executive Planners who will arrange large-scale weekend events, as well as three Pop-up Program Planners who will coordinate programs that can happen anywhere and anytime. Finally, there will be two specialized graphic designers who are responsible for creating advertising content. Outside of the Core members, there will still be a peripheral group of students known as the “squad” who can still assist in preparing events.

New CAP Center Core President Valerie Justice ’21 says that this change will transition the club to “a more concise and dedicated group of student leaders.” Justice hopes that a “more diverse group of students will provide more event ideas.”

Even with the change, CAP Center Core is still committed to planning exciting events to strengthen the University community. “We are excited to see the outcome from this change as we continue to provide students with some of their favorite Bucknell events,” Burkholder said.