By: Ashley McCallum

Lifestyle Editor

As of this semester, a familiar group on campus has gone extinct.

The former structure of SEAL (Student Entertainment and Awareness Leauge) is gone, but the events and entertainment it provided is not.

Six student entertainment assistants employed by the University Center will now take the responsibilities that were held by SEAL, which operated under Career and Leadership Development.

“The University Center is able to focus on the Down Under programming … and Career and Leadership Development takes the same amount of energy and pushes campus-wide programs,” said Jan Bilgen, Associate Director of Career and Leadership Development.

Students can expect to see familiar events like the weekend movie series and Thursday night live entertainment as well as new events, like the monthly Wednesday night Jazz series, to come from the UC Entertainment Assistants, according to UC Programming Coordinator Michele Filip.

“Our main objective is to provide alternative activities in the evenings so that not everybody who necessarily wants to go out and party can have something else to do that’s fun and relaxing,” Filip said.

Filip’s position working with the assistants is new with the change from SEAL to UC Entertainment Assistants, but Filip is not new to University of Wisconsin- Whitewater and UC event planning. As a student at UW-W, Filip worked with the UC Tech Crew, Homecoming planning and CenterNET, the student entertainment planning group prior to SEAL.

“I really enjoyed my time here, so coming back really feels like home and that’s a really cool thing,” Filip said. “I’m excited to be able to be back and mentor students just how I was mentored with Jan [Bilgen].”

Before SEAL and the UC Entertainment Assistants, UCAB (University Center Activities Board) then CenterNET were responsible for UC entertainment and programming. While this is not the first time the group has changed names or changed where it works out of, the goal of providing students with on-campus entertainment has never changed.

“I like to use the word evolution because students today have very different needs and wants than students did three years ago, five years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago,” Bilgen said. “As a division of student affairs, we need to be nimble and flexible to help that evolution happen, and this is just that next evolution.”