Southern Oregon University’s Club Involvement Fair took place on April 6 at the Stevenson Union. Over 40 Clubs appeared at the event, taking the opportunity to connect with students across all majors. Club leaders highlighted how such an event allows them to reach students who otherwise would not hear about unique opportunities to get involved on campus.
This is particularly true of clubs pertaining to specific majors, where students of other majors may assume they are not welcome. Mara Shene of the Holistic Teaching and Learning Club outlined her club’s goals to The Siskiyou: “Today we’re basically at club involvement to try and recruit other majors, especially people that aren’t education majors,” she said. “We’re here to show that we are not limited to teaching. We are a group for everyone.” Shen also noted the club’s emphasis on mindfulness and wellness as accessible focuses of the club.
In addition to student organizations such as clubs and ASSOU, departments around campus set up booths to advertise themselves. Some departments that appeared at the event were the Sustainability Center and The Social Justice and Equity Center. In addition to the Sustainability Center, the Sustainability Collective also appeared at the event. Liz Adksisson, the founder of Sustainability Collective, described how the event was an opportunity to bring new faces and ideas to the collective during Spring Term: “My hope is to get new members who can bring new ideas to the table. We’ve had a lot of regulars and sometimes we have new people, but we want people to feel comfortable even if they are new to the collective to bring forth their ideas about sustainability. And so my hope is that we can get people who weren’t able to come last term to come join us and spend some time grounding and doing art and help in their communities.”
Shene and Adkisson both focused on the inclusivity of their clubs. Shene described how holistic education focuses on “educating the child as a whole,” a tenant that can be applied to other areas of study. She described how the club had heard from business majors with similar goals to that of the club. Adkisson also described the importance of bringing different skills to the Collective. When people across various educational disciplines are brought into the space, they bring skills like art and journalism. Other clubs spoken to, such as the E-Sports Club, expressed how they wanted to bring in different types of people. The representatives of the E-Sports Club described how skill-level was not relevant to membership. Leaders across all clubs sought to create equitable spaces on campus. The Club Involvement Fair was an opportunity for clubs to promote awareness and inclusivity around Southern Oregon University.
