Following recent renovations to the Skyline Room in the Coates University Center, Student Programming Board (SPB) has taken the initiative this semester to utilize the space for student activities. The programs held there, called Saturdays in Skyline, focus on bringing students together for fun activities on Saturday evenings from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., whenever, students prefer to stay on campus.

Student Programming Board is an organization responsible for coordinating programming and events for students on campus.  These events range from large-scale concerts to comedian and hypnotist shows to film screenings.

Saturdays in Skyline began on Sept. 7 with Trivia Kickoff Night. The film “Man of Steel” was shown on Sept. 13 and the student band, Friends Like Us, performed on Sept. 14. This weekend continues the Trivia Night series with its third installation: tomorrow evening SPB will offer a pancake breakfast.

“It’s always a challenge getting a new program on its feet,” said SPB Director Laura Kalb. “but the Skyline program has started off really well.”

The Skyline Room has been a flurry of activity every Saturday evening this semester, and the programs it holds vary each weekend. While a trivia series is currently held in the room, along with intermittent single events, SPB continues work on designing new programs for the coming semester. With this new initiative, SPB hopes to create a program that gives students who are alone on a Saturday night a safe, enjoyable location to spend their time instead of turning to other alternatives – Saturday Nights in Skyline has been described by attendees as exciting, unique and safe fun.

“I love Saturday Nights in Skyline,” said SPB Program Manager Jordan Greene. “The people there really want to be there and that makes it really fun.”

 The events are not insular, however. In the past, the Skyline Room has worked with the theatre department, providing a reception for “Body Awareness,” which was performed earlier this month. The Body Awareness reception, held on the first night that Body Awareness took place, invited the audience and performers, as well as those working on the show, to a dessert reception afterward. This interaction between  SPB and other groups allows for more people to be introduced to the program.

The Skyline room gives opportunities for other student organizations as well. The room has hosted local band Friends Like Us and intends to include other local bands as well. The concert with Friends Like Us was branded a “coffeehouse style performance” by SPB on the Trinity website.

“About half the audience was new people and we were excited about that,” said Friends Like Us lead guitarist Josh Quiros. “It was such a fun time, especially with the crowd interaction.”

Next semester, the Saturdays in Skyline will be less frequent in the interest of avoiding conflict with other events on campus and allowing students more flexibility with their time. The events will take place every other Saturday  instead of every week. The current focus for activities is to garner interest from new students so that they become regulars and in turn encourage others to join the fun.

More information about future events in the series can be found on the SPB Facebook page, on banners in the Coates University Center and under the Student Programming Board page on the website.

“The best feeling [we have] is when [we] see people come in and enjoy themselves,” Kalb said. “It’s even better seeing them next time, too.”