Known for bringing live animals and bounce houses to campus, theCrew has been looking for new opportunities to diversify its programing. 

With its substantial funds, theCrew has planned a new event this semester and intends to add two more events in the fall.

The new initiative is called Thursnight, where theCrew will team up with Senseless Acts of Comedy on Thursday nights to attract more students to the activities of both organizations.

“Once their audience gets out they can attend one of our events and build a whole night of programing around that,” Brad Thompson, assistant director of student activities, said.

TheCrew intends to host larger-scale events on Friday and Saturday nights next semester as a way to encourage students to stay on campus and to provide alternative weekend activities, Thompson said. 

The added programs will be funded by a separate budget that has been allocated to theCrew by the university, and details of these weekend events should be finalized by April or May, he said. 

“It was something we’d asked for in the past, in terms of having budget money to create additional programing,” Thompson said.

The organization’s budget is currently set at $304,000, with the money coming from Student Government Association’s student fees. Of that amount, $100,000 is used to produce four to five various weekly events. 

TheCrew has come a long way since it was founded in August of 2010, and members of the organization said the group is continually looking to improve.

“We want to make students happy and give them a break from reality,” sophomore movement science major Matthew Ratley, a leader in theCrew, said. “We consistently fulfill that goal by having events four to five times a week.”

The best way to inform the campus about weekly events is through social media and word-of-mouth, Thompson said.

Mary Shea, a first-year early childhood education major, said she has been to more than a dozen events hosted by theCrew, and was motivated to do so by recommendations from her friends.

To ensure student satisfaction, theCrew regularly updates its event feedback survey and uses its marketing team to reach students on and off campus. The group also encourages students to submit suggestions for event ideas.

In the future, Thompson said he sees the organization continuing to expand and adapt to the changing campus culture.

“This campus is changing fast and our students changing fast,” he said. “We’re always looking at ways to provide opportunities for our students.”