They were leaving the annual Student Involvement Fair which introduces students to on and off-campus extracurricular clubs and volunteer opportunities.
This year, more than 350 student groups, a record high attendance, had booths at the fair, said Colleen Rose, senior assistant director for Student Life and Learning.
Rose estimated that around 10,000 students attended the fair over the course of the day.
“This is probably the most people we have had,” she said. “Every year the fair is better than the year before.”
More booths meant organizations had to try harder to attract the attention of students, said Karli Hansen, a student organizations graduate assistant.
“The Student Athletic Board is giving out free T-shirts, so I know exactly where their booth is because a million people have come and asked where they are,” she said. “They’re getting a lot of people.”
Hansen said sporting and volunteering groups seemed to attract large crowds to their booths.
“The longboarding club has been popular, and Midnight Snipes Quidditch has had a really long line for a while,” she said.
In addition to handouts, free food was another tactic used to lure students. Several booths boasted bowls full of candy, and a group of students was spotted beckoning their friends to “the table that has popsicles.”
Other groups drew in students by appealing to their emotions and ideals.
“Are you interested in helping alleviate global poverty?” one student asked those passing the Trockman MicrofinanceNRInitiative booth she was manning.
“A lot of people are like, yes, we do, but then some keep walking past anyway,” she said.
The Trockman Microfinance Initiative researches different types of microfinance and poverty alleviation methods.
“We bring in speakers and put on different events to bring awareness, and then we go and visit the microfinance organizations,” another student at the booth said. “This year we will visit Chicago, Cincinnati, and we have a trip planned to Rwanda this summer.”
The two students estimated that about 40 to 50 students visited their booth, which they agreed is a good number because the club currently boasts about 30 members.
They said this is the first year the group has had a booth at the fair, and membership was mostly offered to students in the Kelley School of Business.
“Global poverty isn’t just a business issue,” the first student said. “We wanted to get people from the whole campus involved, so we are here this year.”
