ULM superfan, peer leader, and CAB president—Beau Benoit may claim the title of the most involved student on campus. How did a small-town boy from Benton, Louisiana, become one of the faces of ULM?
With a population of about 2,000, Benton, Louisiana, is two hours from Monroe. It is the epitome of a small town where a graduation or marriage turns into a local event.
“Everyone at my high school looked like me,” Benoit said, “I grew up in an area that didn’t have much diversity, and I felt a lot of pressure at times to think exactly the same as everyone I went to school with.”
Benoit felt trapped, destined to repeat the same cycle as all his classmates: finish high school, attend college and return to Benton. He explained that he struggled to find organizations open to his perspectives and ideas.
“Aside from our gifted program in middle school and high school, the only thing I participated in was track and field,” Benoit said.
When the time came to apply for college, Benoit decided to tour ULM. He explained that he was “dead set” on pursuing a career in toxicology. Since ULM is the only college in the state with an undergraduate toxicology program, the choice was clear.
ULM’s Preview Registration Enrollment Program (PREP) introduced Benoit to the world of the Campus Activities Board (CAB). As one of ULM’s largest RSOs, CAB organizes almost every major event on campus. Week of Welcome, Homecoming Week and Spring Fever Week are the results of months of CAB members’ hard work and dedication.
Benoit saw CAB as an opportunity to reinvent himself. No longer was he just a freshman from Northwest Louisiana; he was a “cabbie.”
“College was the first time I was somewhere that felt like a melting pot of many different things,” Benoit said.
Over the years, Benoit joined the Honors Program, participated in Tau Omicron Chi and wrote for Student Publications. He welcomed three freshman classes to the bayou as a PREP staffer and peer leader.
Benoit became a staple at every ULM sporting event, never seen without his homemade 7-foot PVC pipe ULM flag. ESPN even recognized Benoit’s dedication to athletics, naming him ULM’s No. 1 superfan.
Benoit always made room for CAB meetings in his packed college schedule. The organization helped shape him into the leader he is today, and Benoit wanted to pay that debt back tenfold.
“I’ve been a part of CAB for four years now, and I don’t see myself doing anything differently as I did four years ago,” Benoit said. “My involvement in and passion for the RSO has never wavered.”
Last fall, CAB members elected Beau president. According to Benoit, CAB switched to member-only voting to prevent “a campuswide popularity contest. ” The RSO canceled its annual Spring Fever concert because of reduced funding, and CAB seemed to be losing its widespread presence on campus.
Benoit quickly realized that work needed to be done within the organization.
“The biggest thing we’ve set goal-wise is to make CAB closer as a community,” Benoit said. “In years past, CAB members formed their own cliques, and it felt like a few groups working separately rather than one cohesive family with a shared goal.”
Under Benoit’s leadership, CAB began working behind the scenes to reinvent and create new traditions. Benoit helped plan this year’s Homecoming Week, a campuswide celebration of ULM’s student body. CAB felt pressured to make this week memorable as ULM welcomed its largest freshmen class since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, CAB is planning the return of the highly-anticipated Spring Fever Concert. While not much information has been released about the concert, CAB selected the artist based on a series of Instagram polls.
Benoit felt he came full circle, molding the next generation of cabbies into campus leaders.
“I give the same advice to all of the CAB members when mentioning taking on leadership roles,” Benoit said. “I truly want people to be leaders in their own right, whether or not being a leader comes with a fancy title.”
