The University Programs Council — a large agency organization on Grounds with upwards of 150 members — is responsible for organizing a variety of events spanning live music performances, film screenings and more for University students. The group is composed of eight committees consisting of students working to provide accessible events for the University community.
Agency organizations, according to the University’s website, “act on behalf of the University performing duties the University would otherwise be obligated to perform on its own.” Students in agency organizations go through University training and maintain working relationships with University administrators.
UPC frequently arranges spontaneous events, like this year’s Puppies and Pumpkins and Tie Dye Pop-Up. Their recurring hits such as Battle of the Bands, Wahoo Welcome concerts and the Springfest series often make the largest splashes at the University. The latter is perhaps their most ambitious undertaking, featuring two large events — a concert with a popular headlining musical artist, and a similarly prominent comedian at a comedy show.
This year at the Springfest Concert, artist Quavo performed to eager student crowds at John Paul Jones Arena, with student band Loose Champagne — winner of this year’s Battle of the Bands — as the opening act. Ten days later, stand-up comedian Josh Johnson amused audiences at Old Cabell Hall at the Springfest Comedy Show preceded by two similarly hilarious comedy sets.
In addition to their existing lineup of energetic events, UPC’s executives are committed to a wealth of plans moving forward. The organization’s student leadership said they hope to further student body involvement in events from conceptualization to execution, cultivate a stronger public image and serve larger audiences.
The Cavalier Daily spoke to both current and former UPC leadership to learn more about their mission and goals moving forward to the fall semester.
Bhavyasri Suggula, former chair of UPC and Class of 2026 alumna, explained that UPC has recently made strides towards heeding student input. She said she helped to shift UPC’s focus to student needs when planning events by implementing initiatives such as feedback forms and tabling setups to gather student opinions.
“This year, one of our biggest initiatives has been our feedback form and our newsletter,” Suggula said. “For next year, we decided to create a tabling initiative which will allow us to essentially create all these pop-ups so that way we can have more students come forward and be like, ‘This is what I would like to see.’”
Suggula’s involvement at UPC has now laid a path for others moving forward — including Catherine Zhou, current chair, former director of the Special Events Committee and rising fourth-year College student, and Forrest Sun, director of UPC’s Pots, Kettle and German committee and rising fourth-year Commerce student. The PKG committee organizes musical events and acts for the University community.
Both Suggula and Zhou expressed the belief that the student body is oftentimes unclear on what exactly UPC does, and that sometimes students attend activities without knowing UPC is the organization behind them. Zhou said one of her main goals for her term as chair is to establish UPC’s brand across Grounds.
“I think UPC is in a very unique position, because we have a lot of potential that … needs to be harnessed,” Zhou said.
Overall, Zhou said that visibility of the organization is a primary objective of hers going into the fall.
“My main goal is establishing UPC both as a brand [and] also our physical space,” Zhou said. “We operate within the [Programs and Councils space in Newcomb Hall] … So I feel like simple things that [have] more visible signage, like ‘This is UPC,’ maybe a neon sign there, maybe photos from Puppies and Pumpkins … the pictures that people like took with Quavo, things like that.”
Beyond these external improvements, Zhou said she hopes to enhance UPC’s internal operations as well, allowing the committee directors to have a sense of autonomy in their work.
“[Another main goal] internally [is] things like programming logistics, smoothing things out, making operations better for directors … [and] learning how to disseminate that properly and making sure that members feel a part of it and are able to operate themselves without someone telling them exactly what to do,” Zhou said.
Sun, one of the committee directors, is also hoping to expand student input and involvement in UPC’s events. He pointed to efforts within his committee from last semester, such as this year’s reformed Battle of the Bands. Eight student bands performed one after another in competition, and for the first time audiences were able to pick band contestants in advance online and choose the winner by voting between “battling” performers. The winner was then invited to open for the headliner at the Springfest Concert.
“One of those ways [we included the student body] was the bracket system that we did this year,” Sun said. “As well as democratizing … what bands actually get to play in Battle of the Bands … We posted posts on Instagram where people directly from the community were able to vote in what bands they wanted.”
Sun said he plans to continue involving the student community in selecting the headlining artists at future Springfest Concerts by surveying student groups.
Due to the size of its membership, UPC has a wide reach, enabling them to partner with other creative student organizations. Sun said another future objective is to expand UPC’s connections to student groups to foster creative ideas. As an example of UPC supporting other organizations’ goals, Sun cited the organization’s April 3 “DJ for a Day” event — where UPC collaborated with the Student Hip Hop Organization to provide DJ lessons at 1515.
“I really do want to expand to more clubs or [Contracted Independent Organizations] in terms of partnerships here on Grounds,” Sun said. “I think that's what makes UPC very special … [We] help facilitate a lot of the cool events and cool ideas that other people have.”
In connecting with more students and CIOs, UPC leadership has the opportunity to grow their contributions to University culture. Through the efforts of club members and executives alike, the organization hopes to bring together crowds larger than ever before in the 2026-27 academic year and beyond.
Zhou said she hopes to provide spontaneity to the University experience, and noted that legacy programs like the Wahoo Welcome Concert, Springfest Concert and Battle of the Bands will continue in future years and improve on their previous iterations.
“I think the purpose of UPC is to have the surprising fun. It isn’t a part of your worked in schedule,” Zhou said. “It's like you see the post on the Instagram, you hear about it from your friends, you walk by it on South Lawn, and you get that dose of ‘Oh, there's more to going to school here than being a student.’”
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