The Spring Activities Fair allowed a variety of clubs and organizations to reach out directly to the university’s student body.
The Spring Activities Fair was in full force Wednesday, Jan. 29, as student organizations from all over campus gathered in the Great Hall of the Student Union with the intention of recruiting and connecting with others in the TU community. Despite historically being significantly smaller than the Fall Activity Fair, this semester’s Spring fair held its own, with student organizations quickly filling up the available tables. A wide variety of organizations were present at this semester’s fair including a number of religious, cultural, academic, political and even professional groups. With the aim of meeting new individuals and growing their organizations’ student base, many clubs brought a variety of snacks and stickers to give away, as well as provided flyers with contact information and upcoming events to students.
After speaking with several of the clubs present at the fair, many organizations’ leaders reported that these biannual fairs have had positive impacts on their clubs in the past, such as increased student participation and increased visibility, especially for small or newly chartered organizations. Student leaders Evelyn Smucker and Parker Green of the university’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry explained that there is often an uptick in attendance at their weekly lunches and Monday night fellowship meetings especially, immediately after the Activities Fair.
Additionally, many newly chartered organizations are hopeful that these events will allow them the chance to grow, and reach a broader demographic of students. The Hurricane Rocketry Club, for example, is a club that was chartered just last year, and hopes to use the Activities Fair not only to get more students involved, but also to reach students with a more diverse range of majors. Co-founder of the club Ryan Smith emphasized that despite their current base of students being predominantly STEM centered, the club welcomes students of all different majors to get involved. Smith went on to explain a variety of positions the organization currently seeks students to help support, including in areas such as social media, website design and fundraising.
Hurricane Rocketry Club, however, was not the only new organization at the fair looking to diversify its student base. TU’s newly charted Real Estate club made their first appearance at the Spring Activities Fair this Wednesday, hoping to get word out about their new organization. The Real Estate club is a professional group created with the express aim of connecting students interested in a real estate career with resources and networking opportunities. Student leaders Shawnda and Katrina Henderson expressed a similar sentiment to Smith, explaining that while most individuals within their organization are business majors, they hope that the fair will allow them to reach a broader audience of students.
In addition to the general consensus among many of the clubs’ leaders that the biannual Activities Fairs have a positive correlation with subsequent meeting attendance, many leaders also stressed that retaining these attendance rates remains an enduring problem. Student leader representing UTulsa’s Fiber Arts Club, Hannah Lambert, spoke of this situation, explaining how despite lots of interest being shown at events like these, and in the group’s social media, that interest does not always translate into sustainable meeting attendance. Similarly, even leaders of more established clubs, like Students for Sustainability, emphasized that retaining students remains one of their biggest challenges. Magnolia Garbarino, one of the student leaders representing Students for Sustainability at Wednesday’s fair, elaborated on the problem, explaining that despite increased attendance and interaction immediately after the fair, leaders struggle to retain this same level of participation for the rest of the semester.
The common theme appears to be that many leaders of student organizations are growing increasingly concerned about retaining consistent and diverse student participation. This consideration seems to have at least partially contributed to the increased participation of both newer and more well established clubs at this semester’s Activities Fair, making it a resounding success.
