What It Takes to Be J.A.B.: Revealing the Process of the Jaguar Activities Board

Behind all of the glitz, glamor & events, there’s a group of students who work tirelessly to give us these better experiences during homecoming & Springfest.
They call themselves J.A.B., which stands for the Jaguar Activities Board. The Student Jaguar Activities Board is fairly new, coming out last semester in the Fall under the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement in Student Affairs.
In that short amount of time, the Board has created a plethora of events on such as the “JagNik” Welcome Back Week and the homecoming concert that were widely attended.
Arielle Williams, who currently serves as the Gaming/ E-Board Chair, expresses that “To be a J.A.B. member it takes patience, the ability to hear ideas and see all perspectives of them as well, but also to see perspectives about other people’s opinions. You have to really be able to take the backlash and roll with it.”
Williams also communicated how she became a chair member of the Jaguar Activities Board. “I became a J.A.B. member when it was first constructed in Spring 2022. All E-Board members were handpicked and went through an interview process by our advisor Ms.Tiffany. From there she chose our positions that best suited us based on characteristics.”
Rachel Cole, also the Chair for Gaming/ E-Board, had the same sentiment as Williams. In order to become an E-Board member of J.A.B., it is simply an interview process. I became a member through a group interview.” Cole states.
There will always be pros and cons to being in an organization; whether it be the student body’s opinions and critiques on events or some things simply may not go as planned.
The two Gaming chairs share their own definitions of good and bad times that they experienced in the organization.
Williams goes on to share her pros of the organization, including being a part of a family. “The pros for starting are I got to get connected with so many people and I have made family out of my cabinet. We get to see the behind-the-scenes of everything & I have earned a new appreciation due to the processes we see as far as rejection, budgets, and setup for such wide-scale events.”
But her cons, reiterate the aforementioned such as backlash and lack of credit. “…We put in a lot of work and sometimes the things we put the most effort into get rejected and we just have to deal with it…The backlash we get from the student body even though there are reasons and certain restrictions they don’t know about as to why we can’t get certain events, artists, etc. As well as the lack of acknowledgment we get as a new organization with such a big impact as far as student engagement.”
From Cole’s point of view, she loves doing what she does, but there are sacrifices to be made.“Pros..being able to work with creative people to bring new ideas and events to Southern. Cons, We have to sacrifice our experience so that the student body can enjoy it, but it’s still worth it.”
J.A.B. continues to implement programming on campus “with a Punch”. Stay updated with any more events J.A.B. presents to Southern University on their Instagram @subr_jab. To stay updated with the Office of Student Media, follow our Instagram @southernu_osm.