The Hofstra Club Fair is a great way of getting involved with like-minded peers on campus. Another way to get involved in clubs, besides attending the club fair, is to sign up for clubs online through GetInvolvedHU, conveniently located on your student portal.
This begs the question: Why did Hofstra cram dozens of tables manned by three or more members – as well as almost all of the freshmen class – like sardines into the Mack Arena? What’s the point, if it’s all available online?
I feel that without this initial physical meeting, clubs would be more of a gamble to join. Hofstra Crew Club President Wendy Markert felt similarly. When asked, she said that she believed the club fair is “absolutely necessary.”
“You really need it to get to know people face-to-face before making a big commitment,” she said. “The crew team is pretty small and so we’re all pretty close. It’s something you don’t want to go into without having met the people who run it first.”
If you join a club online, there’s a good chance your entire opinion would change when you meet the members for the first time in person. Alternatively, Gretchen Gamrat, president of the fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, is not so enamored with the process.
“The club fair this year was really poorly put together. There was no room to move around, and it was not nearly as organized as it needed to be,” she said. “The clubs’ tables were alphabetized, when they should have been set up by category. It was very difficult for people to find things that interested them.”
Gamrat makes a good point. To be fair to Hofstra, the event is usually held outside on the Intramural Fields. This year however, there was a tropical storm warning, so the event was moved indoors for safety concerns. Daylen Orlick, a member of the executive board of the Hofstra Dutchmen, also believes that physical meetups are “very important.”
“A big part of the club fair, at least for the current members, is trying to recruit people,” he said. “You can’t really do that online. You need to show new students your true colors to foster interest and sell your group. In fact, I think there should be more club fairs throughout the year.”
Exposing yourself to new interests is an important part of being in college. I agree with Orlick, and think that there should be even more potential events for students to expose themselves to clubs in person.
The next time you see a group of club members shouting in the Student Center, take a minute to see if they present an opportunity that you might enjoy.
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