Multiple clubs and organization make great efforts at hosting events on campus, but The Outlook staff believes that improvement on student attendance can be made.
We believe that one possibility can be whether the events offered on-campus are of student interest or not. This is still up for debate amongst the staff, yet we do give organizations and clubs like the Student Activities Board (SAB) credit for the way they advertise their events and push for student involvement. Email is usually the common form of how clubs and organizations reach out to students,. However, the vast majority of the student body deletes these invitations upon receiving them.
While there are certain events that occur on campus which have hosted a larger amount of students, these events usually only obtain such an audience when there is an obligation for a class or a chance for extra credit. While The Outlook staff does notice that Monmouth has a record of hosting events with large student turnouts that aren’t a part of an academic commitment, like the Involvement Fair or the Fall Carnival. However most of the other events fall under the wayside with less than a couple dozen students attending.
Commuters in particular find it difficult at times to attend events on campus in their free time. Since the majority of the University’s student body is made up of commuter students, we feel that events must be more commuter-friendly. With events that clash with work, class and other obligations, events on campus appear to be aimed at the small population of students already living on campus.
It comes as no surprise that people like to stay in their comfort-zone because it is familiar and safe. Usually though, certain campus offered events attempt to lull students outside of that comfort-zone. As a result those students are going to look to their group of friends and see what they’re reaction is to the event. If your group of friends is not motivated to go to that on-campus psychic reading or to the football game then, more often than not, you’re not going to go. So it might very well be that poor student turn out is responsible for the lack of involvement.
How could this be remedied though? Some editors at The Outlook believe having better head-lining bands at the Multipurpose Activity Center (MAC) or having better advertising of the tailgating policy during sports events are possible solutions.
The staff isn’t rallying for alcohol to be served at all campus events, but we do believe alcohol can be enjoyed as long as you are of-age and drink responsibly.
When asking why some of the staff believed there isn’t much student attendance at events, one of the editors had no response. She could not understand why so few people show up when the University as a whole tries so hard to bring in students.
At The Outlook, we acknowledge how hard student organizations, clubs, faculty members and the University try to get more students involved in their events. We realize that it is on the students’ part too. We also see that there are great student turnouts at certain events, we would just like to see even more students attend.
We do hope that student involvement will change and more people will start attending more events. However, this is something that will require a slight change on both ends.
