October 17, 2016
Scribe Staff
UCCS experienced a record enrollment this fall with over 12,000 students now attending the university.
With more students than ever before at UCCS, this means that more of us should attend events put together by clubs and organizations on campus.
But a large concern expressed by clubs and organizations is that events put together for the diversity of students, whether you live on campus or are an hour’s drive away, are under-attended.
UCCS has a mix of traditional and non-traditional students that includes students who have families to take care of, or students who have to work a couple extra jobs outside of going to class full time. A lot of students commute to campus every day and live too close to campus to have ever lived in the dorms.
The fact that UCCS offers options to accommodate the many nontraditional students that attend our school is one of the reasons why we like it. Online classes, weekend university and summer courses allow us to fi t an education into a busy schedule.
But as clubs and organizations, we should be taking the same approach that the university is in offering nontraditional marketing and options for the events we want students to attend. It’s frustrating for anyone to put work into making an event and expect only a handful of students to show up.
Although not every event is meant for a large turnout, talks, discussions and series exist to raise awareness of issues and social concerns that we should be aware of outside of what is discussed in our classes.
We have used all of the same excuses to avoid going to these events, too. Some of us travel far and wide to get to school, so why would we drive half an hour back to campus for an event? We might be working 40 hours a week and do not have the extra time to go to an event.
The question remains for many clubs and organizations: how do we reach out to more students? How do we find the time to learn about and attend these events?
Students have to be interested in the event, and we can’t force students to attend events they’re not interested in attending. If members of the club or organization holding the event don’t even want to attend then how can we expect students to get excited about what we’re putting out there?
We can attend events that are interesting to us, but we should still consider the advantages of attending the many events that we might have thought twice about going to. These events are paid for by our student fees, and we should take advantage of what’s offered to us while we’re still at UCCS.
On Oct. 12, Emmy award winning actress Allison Janney attended UCCS for a Q&A discussion. It was great to see a good amount of students asking questions and enjoying the event.
These are opportunities to see and sometimes meet people that we would never get the chance to otherwise.
Even if your degree program or personal interests don’t align with the event you are going to, it’s still a good chance to attend the event and learn something you wouldn’t have otherwise.
Events are an opportunity for students to expand their perspectives. Isn’t that what college is all about?
Pay attention to the community boards, email announcements, club fairs and Mountain Lion Connect instead of passively glancing over these resources. Go out, meet other people and open your mind.