One of the hidden advantages of the Activities Fair is how inspiring it is to become more involved on campus.
Walking through the Palo Duro Lounge, sampling all the organizations and finding the right one can be challenging. That might be because there are 356 registered student organizations.
Wednesday there will only be about 75 tables at the fair, and that’s exactly our point. How could only 20 percent of the student organizations be participating in the biggest recruiting day of the semester?
In a university that seems plagued with apathy, having such a plethora of organizations only makes it harder for new ones to start. How is a black, female journalist supposed to chose between the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists and the Association for Women in Communication? Or how can a curious engineering student choose between the 15 organizations about engineering? Or a Christian between the 10?
Then, it can become a daunting task to try and determine which of those organizations are still active. It’s not uncommon to see one that hasn’t updated in months or only had a single event the whole semester.
Requiring organizations to re-register each semester only solves part of the problem. Beside the oddity that the deadline comes a month after the Activities Fair, there is much more to starting an organization then writing out the by-laws.
Having students in varied stages of their college career is a crucial and often overlooked step of a successful organization. If a group full of seniors thinks it’s a good idea to start a club, they need to recruit like-minded underclassmen or the group is sure to die out.
Staying committed throughout the semester is the other step that can get lost in a pile of research papers and reading material. But disregarding these things can hurt the student that chose one hyper-focused group over another. That student may end up feeling like he or she chose incorrectly.
Struggling student organizations need to band together. Can there really be that many differences between the Environmental Society and the Student Sustainability Society? If starting a new organization is easier then becoming involved in a similar one, there is something wrong with the system.
A healthy campus community requires a diverse group of student organizations, but those organizations need to be active. As you walk down the aisle at the Activities Fair today remember you are making a commitment to that organization; one of love for that group’s purpose and dedication to its causes.
