With the start of a brand new school year, a new wave of students has entered the campus with nothing to do. Having nothing to do brings boredom, and boredom brings anarchy, so how does the staff at FMU solve this dilemma? Simple: host an activities fair.

This is exactly what Student Life decided to do from 1-4 p.m. on Sept. 9, 2021, in the Smith University Center (UC).

“This event is a student activities fair,” said Brittany Durrah, a Student Life specialist overseeing the event. “It’s basically just all of our organizations on campus coming so that the students, in general, can get a better understanding of the organizations we have on campus so they can be a part of more than just themselves– more than just a student on campus. They can get active and get involved.”

Having an assortment of joinable organizations on campus is a great thing, but it can be difficult for incoming students, who may be unfamiliar with such clubs, to get involved. For all the many events hosted by the staff and faculty of this university, an opportunity for students, both new and old, is crucial not only for the student body to discover ways to get involved but for the organizations themselves to find new members to join their groups. “It’s going really well,” said Santana Christmas, editor-in-chief of the Snow Island Review, on the success of the event’s mission. “A lot of people have come out, and a lot of people are actively participating, and a lot of people are very interested, writing down emails, wanting to get involved, not just walking around taking some candy. I think it’s doing really well getting younger freshmen out here and getting them involved in all this.”

Dubbing the Snow Island Review as a smaller organization, Christmas said she was excited about the attendance, expressing her joy at the turn-out. Passersby were continually stopping by her stand to learn more.

“Just from the one hour I’ve been here, I’d say we’ve benefited a lot,” said Christmas. “We have a lot of people, especially from different majors, which is kind of what we’re focusing on right now – is getting literature and writing and expression to everybody on campus. With how it’s going, I’m pretty excited.”

So with the event organizers and organization leaders believing the activities fair to be a success, what say the students? After all, they are the target audience here, so their judgment truly determines the success of this event. “It’s a good way to get people who otherwise wouldn’t get out and socialize to find new people and find new groups,” said freshman computer science major Alan

Wallace. When asked about the variety of organizations represented, Wallace said, “I didn’t know there were clubs for every major. I didn’t know there was like a math one or a computer science one, and those are interesting to me – the niche groups, the people who understand the classes I’m taking.”

It would seem all parties involved viewed this event as a major success in inviting students to see and join a wide variety of clubs and organizations seemingly tailor-made for whatever interests they may have. With this new school year comes a new opportunity to get involved, and there is no better time than the present. So what are you waiting for? Join a club! And, if you don’t know of any specifically you might want to join, you can always ask around. There are so many on this campus, so somebody is bound to have the group just for you.