Last Friday, hundreds of JHU students flooded the Ralph S. O’Conner Recreation Center for JHU’s annual Student Activities Fair, hosted by the Office of Student Life.
According to the Office of the Dean of Student Life, there were over 220 clubs in attendance, 20 more than last year, and roughly 2,000 students, which is generally the same as in past years.
Students present at the event generally responded positively, although some felt overwhelmed.
“There’s lots of chaos. It’s kind of intimidating, but it’s a good thing,” freshman Matt Stewart said.
Freshman Jasmine Wang said it was “really diverse”.
Kayla Pavlos, another freshman, agreed, saying there were “a lot of options, a lot of diversity.” Although she said she “signed up for a lot [of clubs], I’ll probably be committed to just a couple”.
Fellow freshman Dan Lassman described it as “overwhelming, so many clubs to join” and when asked about how many clubs he signed up for and would join, responded “I don’t know, too many to count . . . I’ll probably join 5 to 6.”
According to Jason Heiserman, Director of Student Activities at the Office of the Dean of Student Life and also a part-time lecturer at the Center for Leadership Education, “We absolutely believe it was a success. I have heard from many groups that their lists of interested students were extremely long.”
Student groups present at the fair generally had positive opinions of the way the fair was run, although many would have preferred more space. Stephanie Lin, a senior and President of the Taiwanese American Students Association, described this year’s club fair as “the same” as last years.
Junior Oren Pollack of the Jewish Students Association said “It’s a nice tradition… [but] there could be more space.”
Another junior, Danny Kaplan of JHU Quidditch said it was a “great time”.
“We continue to try to accommodate more and more groups, but also have to be sensitive to the fact that the Recreation Center can only hold so many people. It was definitely packed in there,” Heiserman said.
However in regards to funding from the Office of Student Life student groups were more mixed.
“We didn’t get enough funding this year and are very upset. We’re going to do fundraising on our own,” Lin said, adding that one way the Office of Student Life could improve this situation is by having “more funding and grants we can apply for.”
However, senior Chelsea Gonzales of La Organizacion Latina Estudiantil(OLE) said that their group got “good funding”, as did junior Lena Saleh of the Arab Student Union, who said they got “a lot of funding.”
“The budget is a bit too complicated to explain in a short answer, but I can say that the amount has stayed consistent over the past few years. This year, we had roughly 80 groups apply for annual budgets and the majority of them received exactly or close to what they asked for,” Heiserman said.
Overall students found the fair to be a rewarding and fascinating experience. Junior Andrew Hall of Canadians at JHU, said “I like the tradition of it . . . it’s all good.”
