Organizations hope to raise awareness at Summer Welcome
RHA hopes to gain more involvement by educating new students.
Published June 2, 2010
Summer Welcome: a freshman’s first real taste of MU. It’s where students will finish registering for classes, sample dining hall food, set up an e-mail account and, among other things, learn about student organizations. Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce said MSA plans to use the program as a way to inform students about the organization.
“I think when you improve the awareness, it will help to get students involved who really want to be involved rather than those who may want to put it on their resume later,” Noce said.
MSA had a high turnover rate last year, but Noce said they aren’t looking to heavily recruit.
“Most senators are elected,” Noce said. “Directors are appointed. There are a lot of other ways to get involved, so we’re looking to inform and tell people how to get involved if they’re really interested.”
Noce said he’s hoping to foster the energy and excitement students have at the beginning of the year to get them involved and keep interest high.
The Residence Halls Association is taking a different approach, according to RHA Vice President Lauren Thomas. They plan on informing students about RHA, but their main goal is to encourage more involvement in RHA.
“We’ve got people that are going to be at a table at Summer Welcome telling parents and students what RHA is and what it’s about,” Thomas said. “They’ll be encouraging them to get involved.”
This is the first year RHA plans to have a table at Summer Welcome to encourage involvement, and they plan to hand out pamphlets of information.
RHA is looking at ways to get more students involved and keep them involved. They plan on meeting with students at the beginning of the year before their time is committed to other organizations and having elections for hall representatives rather than asking hall governments to appoint them. Thomas said they hope this will encourage more students who really want to get involved. If nobody chooses to run, the hall coordinator will find someone to fill the position.
“We’re going to go to all the first or second hall government meetings,” Thomas said.
She said they hope doing this will introduce them to hall governments and inform them about what RHA can do.
The Legion of Black Collegians plans to utilize the Welcome Black Barbecue and Fall Activities Mart rather than Summer Welcome to introduce themselves to incoming freshmen. LBC President Lisa White said last year they helped move in freshmen, and it served as a good way to meet the student body and introduce LBC to incoming students.
“We just haven’t discussed working with Summer Welcome just yet,” White said. “We don’t have extreme exposure.”
In addition to informing students about MSA, Noce plans to encourage involvement all around. In the past, some MSA presidents spoke at Summer Welcome to all students and parents. It allowed the president to introduce him or herself, let students know they could go to MSA with issues and stress the importance of getting involved, Noce said.