We know that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but the same may be said for Joe College.

That's where campus activities come into play, providing a variety of offerings to help students get a well-rounded college experience.

"Campus activities is about trying to help the educational mission through entertainment and cultural activities and speakers, to help these kids get lessons across," said Eric Lambert, the founder and executive director of the Association for the Promotion of College Activities, or APCA.

The Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel in Bettendorf will host the Regional Programming Conference of the APCA later this week, with representatives of colleges from a dozen states in attendance.

Lambert said the conference is part-trade show and part-leadership conference, with 30-40 different acts vying to be booked on individual campuses or to negotiate a tour out of several bookings.

"Comics, bands, magicians, hypnotists, jugglers, novelty things, you name it," said Lambert, whose office is in Sevierville, Tenn. "We've got just about everything there is."

There also are novelty games (including inflatable action events), game shows (where academics is mixed in with pop culture knowledge) and speakers (who deal with serious topics that include gay/lesbian issues, dialogue between black and Jewish communities and stopping human trafficking).

"We try to get across educational concepts," Lambert said.

There are also a variety of ethnic performance groups ready to perform on college campuses.

"We try to expose kids to a cultural surrounding," Lambert said. "Sometimes, if they're in a small community college, expose them to the fact that there are a lot of cultures out there."

The APCA is a for-profit organization that competes with the nonprofit National Association for Campus Activities.

Campus activities, Lambert said, can be traced to the 1800s, when debate societies formed among the generally upper-crust students.

That changed when the G.I. Bill brought in military veterans who could not care less about debating issues of the day in civil discourse. (Lambert recounts the story of a war veteran relative who pummeled the college student who tried to place a freshman beanie on his head.)

"They had this influx of regular people, regular Joes, going to college," he said. "They really didn't want to sit and have a debate society. They wanted R&R."

Campus activities, he said, generally split with academics in colleges - "It led to a lot more party planning to keep people entertained," he said - but now they have an undertone of education and responsibility.

"You can slip things into a speaker series that are informative, that challenge kids' views of the world and things that will contribute to the academic mission," he said. "This mission of the institution is changing from 'Let's produce a mathematics specialist, an engineering specialist' to 'Let's produce a student who is a mathematics professional who is civically engaged, socially conscious, socially aware of environmentalism and sustainability.' "

At St. Ambrose University in Davenport, comedians are among the biggest draws in terms of campus activities, members of the Campus Activities Board, or CAB, said.

"It's something different," said Eva Dondanville of Bettendorf, the public relations chair for the CAB. "You can listen to music all the time, but you don't get the chance to see comedians as often."

The CAB programs at least one event per week, as well as more activities during homecoming week, welcome week and family weekend.

The board strives for variety, said Eric Schueller of Ottawa, Ill., the nightlife chair of CAB. "We want to well-round ourselves in what we bring in," he said.

(Augustana College in Rock Island brings in a variety of acts for its students and is a member of the NACA. Its adviser asked not to be part of an article about the APCA.)

Members of the community are invited to attend almost all of the convention events, with a listing online at www.sau.edu/cab. Most of them are free to the public, with several different venues inside the Rogalski Center on the St. Ambrose campus.

At least 50 audience members have shown up for each CAB event so far this semester.

"With every event, you hope for the maximum amount of people," Dondanville said. "Even if it's not what you've expected, it's still a good number."

"We've had good attendance at all of our events. You can have 500 people and still wish you had more," said Stacy Pauli of Elburn, Ill., the CAB president.

"The artists will always say they'd rather have a group of 10 people who really want to be there than a group for 500 people where the professors are making them be there and they're texting in the back," Pauli added.