Multicultural Programming hosts “cOWLboys” event

Multicultural Programming attempt to put on a Western Culture event for students had “not much turnout”

Youkendy Mera (ocean engineer), Andrew Monast (bio-chem), Caitlin Herdert (architecture), and Farrell Moore (mechanical engineering) posing for a picture in free merchandise that Multicultural Program Board handed out. Mohammed F. Emran | Web Editor

Marcia Lawrence, Contributing Writer
March 20, 2015

On Thursday, March 19, Florida Atlantic University’s Multicultural Programming put on “cOWLboys” at Live Oak Pavilion.

The Multicultural Programming team puts on events to expose students to different cultures — “cOWLboys” was to show what Western Culture is like in America with barbeque, boots and bull rides as advertised by the flyer.

At the door, there was confetti and a table of volunteers welcoming students. The event which was scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. eventually kicked off around 6 p.m. with a small crowd of about six.

Onur Basman (political science) and Nia Awonsa (marketing) volunteering for Multicultural Program Board by greeting students into the event. Mohammed F Emran | Web Editor

While there was food from Shorty’s Bar-B-Q, cowboy hats and line dancing, the promised mechanical bull was a no-show — the school thought it would be too dangerous for students, so it was called off.

Wild Roses — the 2013 and 2014 United Country Western Dance Culture champions — performed towards the beginning and taught students how to line dance to a variety of country music.

Students line dance with the help of the Red Roses, two time champion line dance team. Mohammed F Emran | Web Editor

Cecilia Nicholas, a sophomore biology major, who chose to watch people dance instead of joining in, said the environment was relaxed. In general, students seemed indifferent towards the event. Most came and left when they noticed that the food was not coming out – it stayed wrapped up until the end of the event.

There were some volunteers present including freshman political science major Onur Basman. He said, “We didn’t know there would be so many events at the same time, so there’s not much turnout.”

Throughout the event, a total of approximately 20 students showed up, many saying that they found out about the event through social media. Christopher Ferreira, governor-elect of the Boca Campus and a junior political science major said, “I was invited to this event through social media on Facebook.” Other students including freshman multimedia studies major and orientation leader Eric Linero decided to check out this event to see what is was about because he had also heard about it through social media.

FAU student playing a game. Mohammed F Emran | Web Editor

Students tried to keep themselves entertained by listening to the music and some found a ball to play soccer with. Students also played with the cornhole, and would try to have competitions of who could knock down more bottles. No students seemed to go to the photobooth with the jail cell theme. It seemed as though students were not aware that it was a photobooth, or that they were just impartial to it. Once the food came out at the end, it was cold and students seemed to be disappointed.