To increase student participation on campus, the Student Involvement and Organization Fair was hosted Thursday outside the Memorial Student Center by the Office of Student Organization. 

According to student involvement ambassador Cameron Donohue, roughly 25% of Marshall students were involved in campus organizations this summer, and the university student involvement team hopes to raise that number to 40%.  

“The goal is to get, quite literally, as many students involved as possible,” Donohue said. This event is not the first of its kind, and they will continue to host events like this throughout the year.  

“It’s super important to be involved on campus and find your organization/place here,” said Emilie Christenberry, a graduate assistant working with student involvement and leadership this semester, said. “I really do think that’s true, and that’s why we have these organization fairs, which we have multiple times throughout the year.” 

Student activities began decreasing due to the COVID19 pandemic, and the Office of Student Organization hopes to change this by including more events and opportunities for students to become involved.  

“We try to do these every year, which covid obviously messes up a bit,” Christenberry said. “This is probably the most people we have had in one place in a while.”  

“I haven’t seen campus this alive even when I was a freshman before Covid,” said Donohue. “It’s like a breath of fresh air to see so many new faces as well as some that I haven’t seen in a year and a half.” 

Efforts to increase involvement started at freshman orientation, and more events are in place to continue for the rest of the year.  

“There are still plans to do events within the colleges themselves throughout the semester, where we will invite organizations that have a stronger attachment to specific degree paths to do what they did here,” Donohue said. 

 Student Organization hopes to increase the number of students joining clubs and organizations this semester by hosting career services this semester and hosting another event like this one in the spring.