Nov. 9, 2015
Hannah Harvey
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Students can count on being offered a free T-shirt, water bottle or food almost as much as they can count on being assigned homework on a nightly basis.
Walk into the second floor of the University Center and you will be greeted by friendly faces, as various organizations and departments hand out free, promotional items that include clothing, water bottles, candy and sometimes even food.
But students may be curious to find out how the plethora of free things is funded.
All events hosted by the Office of Student Activities are free to students, including some promotional items. OSA is student-funded, meaning that the Student Activity Fee each student pays at the beginning of the semester is used to fund programs and promotional items.
“Some of that money is allocated to purchase those items like water bottles and T-shirts,” said Stephen Cucchiara, assistant director for OSA.
The items that a club uses to promote themselves vary depending on what students want.
“It’s whatever students have the ability to order. It’s not what’s available, it’s what students desire,” Cucchiara said.
According to Cucchiara, clubs and organizations have to request funding from SGA. Clubs and departments can also fund their promotional items by fundraising.
Clubs can promote themselves in two ways: internally, by appealing to potential club members or by asking for funding to purchase promotional items. Clubs will often book an informational table to hand out their promotional items if they choose to take the second approach.
“Informational tables are mostly educational, in that there is not transition of money. The club’s mindset is that ‘Oh, you got information from us, here’s a pen,’” said OSA graduate assistant for clubs and organizations Corrie Keener.
If a club wishes to book a table for fundraising purposes to sell items on campus, they have to pay a $10 tabling fee per day.
“Depending on what items they’re selling, there’s a lot of back end in Student Life and Leadership with collecting taxes, payments and orders,” Keener said.
If a club or organization wants to promote themselves in the University Center, then they must contact Event Services to schedule their event and book a table.
Students can find out information about the events through the bulletin board in the UC, the events calendar on the UCCS website and Mountain Lion Connect.