Student leaders present their clubs to new and returning students as they flood the quad.
By Jill Tuthill, Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
Equipped with tri-folds and sign-up sheets, student leaders set up camp on the quad for the annual club fair on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to raise awareness about their groups and pitch them to prospective members. However, with clubs yet to receive their allotted budgets for the year, preparations for this year’s fair looked a little different for club leaders.
Typically, at the beginning of each academic year, clubs are provided with a certain amount of money that can be used to cover club maintenance costs such as equipment, supplies, food and anything else that is necessary for the upkeep of their organization. Without the allocation of specific club budgets, student leaders have been left to question how their groups will operate this fall and how to attract new members.
The Quadrangle spoke to Justin Atwater, LGBTQ+ chair of Manhattan University’s chapter of It’s On Us, a student organization that aims to combat and bring awareness to sexual assault on college campuses.
“With the budget changes, it was a lot harder to plan for the club fair this year because of various things such as the cutbacks on color printers,” Atwater said. “It’s difficult to plan events and really get the club going to advertise to people without knowing how the year is going to go.”
Atwater wasn’t the only student leader to struggle with preparations for the club fair this year. Sophia Rosellon, a senior biology major and president of the biology club, told The Quadrangle that she also ran into issues while trying to use campus color printers that are now only accessible with approval from library staff.
“I was like, ‘how was I supposed to know?’” Rosellon said. “So I was running around trying to print these things out, and they came out kind of bad. So that was a problem.”
Rosellon also noted that the events she has planned for the biology club this semester have been altered to ensure that they are free of any mandatory cost for members or the club itself. However, she is concerned about how this will affect club engagement and activity among members.
“My brain has been on it constantly, just because I don’t know what to give people that they’re going to want if we don’t have the funds for it,” Rosellon said. “I can’t tell what’s happening.”
While most clubs have adjusted their plans to some degree due to budget uncertainties, two clubs in particular, MCTV and the communication club, decided to make a radical change and combine together to form one united organization: the Manhattan University Media Network.
The Quadrangle spoke with sophomore Marykate Palmisano, a communication major and vice president of the newly combined group.
“[Last year], we weren’t really given a budget, so there weren’t a lot of projects that we could actually do,” Palmisano said. “So there was really no point in trying anymore.”
However, Palmisano told The Quadrangle that through the joining of the two clubs, they’re trying to take matters into their own hands and change their approach in providing their members with worthwhile experience and resources.
“At least for our club, we’re very much motivated in making a difference on campus,” Palmisano said.
Despite the behind-the-scenes struggles, they were once again successful in recruiting new members and informing students about their clubs as they flooded the quad, according to Palmisano.
Anthonio Whyte, a freshman in the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences, agreed that the club fair was helpful and informative.
“I’ve signed up to four or five different clubs,” Whyte said. “So it very much has stuff I like and that I want to venture into. It’s been super cool.”