Clubs recruit frosh at the 2002 SAC fair

Two hundred student groups attended the 2002 Student Activities Commission (SAC) Fair, which was organized for the first time through a pre-registration process.

According to Student Council (StuCo)Treasurer and Executive Director of the SAC Elise Roecker, groups were asked to pre-register for a spot in the fair, which is held every September on the freshman quad. In the past, groups simply "showed up" the morning of the fair to set up their tables.

Roecker felt the new process helped in "reducing the general confusion and chaos" that can result from trying to coordinate so many groups.

"The registration process worked well," said Roecker. "We were worried it might slow [things] down, but it really helped."

With the help of Director of Student Involvement Jeffrey Groden-Thomas, the SAC produced a brochure indicating the locations of all groups present.

According to Roecker, this was an improvement that the SAC "would have liked to do a long time ago, but didn't have the man-power."

According to SAC Cultural Liaison Jonathan Groce, the freshman were "coming out in droves" during the three-hour event, apparently undaunted by the midday heat.

Senior Class President Ravi Kavasery, who manned the StuCo table, noted that the fair was not only attended by freshman but by sophomores and upperclassmen as well.

All 200 tables were pre-arranged in front of the AMR I building, as opposed to last year's procedure, when groups set up their own tables. According to Groce, the location on the freshman quad was key in attracting freshmen.

"Freshmen ?can walk out and see an active campus right in their front yard," said Groce.

Sophomore Wesley Williams, who greeted students at the Dunbar Hughes Theatre Company table, felt the arrangement allowed students to see every group by simply "walk[ing] around in a circle," although he thought the tables should have been more spread out.

The Entertainer's Club, which attracted students with continuous juggling acts, attended the SAC Fair for the first time.

Junior Paul Lim feels that the group's "big appeal" is its willingness to teach new members.

"We're pretty eye-catching," said Lim. "At least they [students] sign up."

Another new group, Hopkins Olympic Tae Kwon Do, obtained 242 sign-ups from interested students.

According to sophomore Anatoliy Gliberman, the group prides itself on being the first World Tae Kwon Do Federation Certified group on campus, taught by national collegiate champions and qualified to compete at National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do competitions.

Maha Jafri, a member of Student Labor Action Committee, feels the fair is "a great way to get new members?[and] gauge initial interest." According to Jaffrey, the fair was so crowded that she had trouble locating her group's table.

Freshman Lancelot Esteibar said that "certain things were hard to find...in the intertwining of clubs" at the fair.

But he found the clubs that he wanted to and noticed others along the way that he hadn't thought about joining before.

The SAC, which is the funding branch of the StuCo, has seen a consistent increase in the number of student groups, according to Groce.

He feels that the increase demonstrates that "Hopkins isn't just about academics."

"We have a very active student body ?[that] cares about bringing people together for different activities," said Groce. "I think the SAC Fair was a wild success ? it's very promising to see that sort of expression of extracurricular life on campus.