The Shorthorn - Activities Fair Day brings large crowd along with new, unique groups

HOME

NEWS

News

Activities Fair Day brings large crowd along with new, unique groups

Written by Joan Khalaf The Shorthorn senior staff

Wednesday, 27 January 2010 08:07 PM

Students attend the Activities Fair on Wednesday in the Palo Duro Lounge. Attendees learned about student organizations and how they can get involved. (The Shorthorn: Raziq Brown)

Wednesday presented a big opportunity for smaller organizations and start-ups to recruit new members. Student organizations and vendors set up their recruiting stations at the semi-annual Activities Fair Day in the University Center.

About 120 organizations and an average of 2,000 to 3,000 students attended, said Carter Bedford, Student Governance and Organizations associate director.

Some organizations tried unique tactics to get noticed at the fair like the Gay-Straight Alliance, which handed out condoms, or Fusion Flow, an organization that teaches its members how to dance, had a member dancing in the middle of the crowd.

“Music tends to get people’s attention,” said Fusion Flow president and founder Marcus Williams. “Either that, or I have to dance myself.”

Fusion Flow is new to campus and it hopes to put on shows later in the semester.

The University Aikido Club decided to tone down the attention grabbers and focus on people that are serious about training themselves to do the self-defense art.

“We could have done a bunch of crazy demos out here,” said group secretary Corey Schmidt. “But we’re looking for people who want to sincerely train themselves.”

It’s the Art History Student Union’s fifth year on campus, but its first time at the fair. Group president Lindsay Wylie, said she decided to bring her group to the fair to gain visibility for an organization that’s focused in the Fine Arts Building.

The group allows students to present their artwork in a professional setting through an annual symposium which brings in experienced keynote speakers.

Students mingle around the University Center Palo Duro Lounge on Wednesday as a way of getting information about many different organizations and activities available on campus. (The Shorthorn: Jacob Adkisson)

“I was just kind of thinking that this was a waste of time though,” she said. “We haven’t gotten a lot of interest today.”

The Medieval and Renaissance Recreation Society at UT Arlington is an organization that was revived last semester by anthropology senior Andrea Russell and other students. The group president was using the fair to gain people that would take over the organization, which supports and promotes a new Medieval and Renaissance studies minor.

“The problem is, the people that resurrected this club are all seniors,” she said. “We’re graduating. We need other people to come in and take over some officer positions.”
Views: 513 | E-mail

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 January 2010 09:13 PM )

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Social Media

Related Items