Student Programming Board

“We’re the Student Programming Board. We put on all the cool shows.”

That’s often the line that representatives from the Student Programming Board (SPB) use to draw in first-years at their table at the Student Involvement Fair. Indeed, their event popularity eclipses their name recognition; although few SPB t-shirts are seen around campus, everyone has been to Chocolate Fest or the Welcome Week Concert.

The relatively small University Sponsored Organization runs a tight ship, with about 15 student members and minimal involvement from administrators. Aside from suggestions and a little legal supervision, the faculty overseers leave most jobs to the students: organizing, advertising, and getting in touch with artists and speakers.

SPB puts on the Welcome Week concert and comedian shows, which have included rapper T-Pain, comedians Kamau Bell and Samuel Conroe, and EDM artist 3LAU. SPB also puts together other major events on campus, such as Spotlight, Destress Fest, and Chocolate Fest.

SPB has more or less been around for almost a century under different names. In 1937, the Trinity Student Program Committee dug up some Trinity talent to perform at the Dallas-Lancaster County Fair, marking Trinity’s first recorded talent show. It wasn’t until 1984 that Tigerfest and Spotlight began as a mash-up of both annual homecoming celebrations and San Antonio’s own Fiesta. The Coates Center Program Board, with some faculty supervision, organized the event, which would become an instant annual tradition. Although students had been organizing events since the ’30s, it wasn’t until 1991 that the Tiger Council, a student government organization, renamed itself the SPB.