S.L. FULLER
News Editor
With 163 groups, only 100 tables and hundreds of students running around, Spectrum’s Activities Night is a recipe for chaos. But the organization process is one that the group has down to a science. This semester, the event is set for Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. and there will only be a couple of noticeable differences from previous years.
“Usually, Activities Night is not something that is too complex [in terms of having] problems,” said junior marketing and public relations double major Stephanie Willis. Willis is in charge of promotions for Spectrum.
Weather permitting, Activities Night is held outside in the Dods Hall Picnic Grove. If it rains, the event is held in Steele Hall. New this year, as long as the weather is nice, Willis hopes to implement changes that will cut down on any confusion and chaos. One idea includes a list compiled close to the event, of each club matched with a number, that will be posted on Spectrum’s Facebook in order to allow attendees to more easily locate the club their looking for.
Other changes to Activities Night include some new clubs: Student Veterans of SUNY Fredonia, New York State Band Directors Association Collegiate Chapter, US to Fredonia, Badminton Club, Fredonia Ice Devils, Fredonia Bass Society and, newly recognized by the Student Association, a capella group The Riveters.
Fredonia Ice Devils is a synchronized ice skating club. Sophomore psychology major and founder of the Fredonia Ice Devils, Ellen Ormsbee, says it is looking to recruit 10-15 new members into the audition-based club.
“We just want to teach people the fundamentals of synchronized skating,” said Ormsbee. Even though Figure Skating Club already exists on campus, Fredonia Ice Devils is offering something completely different.
“Skating has normally been an individualized sport.” continued Ormsbee. “But recently, they’ve started this whole synchronized version of it where everything they do is exactly in sync and it’s a whole new set of skating moves. It’s a lot about footwork and timing and less about the jumping and spinning.”
Ormsbee, who has been a part of synchronized skating for five years, says the idea for forming this club came out of an ice skating class here on campus.
“I was a teacher’s assistant for this ice skating class and there was one day when the instructor wasn’t there so we kind of ran out of ideas. We were like ‘well, why don‘t we start with [synchronized skating],’ and all the girls in class just fell in love with it so we started the club.”
Junior criminal justice and psychology double major Mikalena Wojcinski, Secretary of Student Veterans of SUNY Fredonia, also has experience in the subject of her club. Being a veteran herself, Wojcinski aims to create a community for students on campus.
“Basically, we want to create awareness that there are veterans on this campus,” said Wojcinski. “We’d like students to be interacting with us. And those who have family members or friends that are in the military — we feel that maybe we can help relate [and] interact with each other. They might have questions and not be able to understand what their friends or family members are going through.” Wojcinski went on to mention how the club was open to everyone, “especially to those who don’t have any connections [to the military].”
Even though Student Veterans of SUNY Fredonia is a brand-new club, Wojcinski said the group is already thinking of activities and goals for the organization.
“Initially, we would like to set up some leadership building because on campus you can kind of fall away from that. Sometimes you need structure for that. Being in the military, that’s a lot of what it’s based off of,” explained Wojcinski. “Also team-building skills — we want to do that — and physical fitness. We kind of want to challenge people. We’ll maybe do obstacle courses throughout campus.”
“It’s kind of a cool thing about our campus that we have over 165 clubs ranging from interests all over the spectrum,” said sophomore dual major in adolescent education in social studies and history Jefferson Dedrick. Dedrick is the new Speaker of the Assembly in the Student Association.
Dedrick also mentioned that some students think Activities Night is put on by the Student Association. “It’s kind of cool that Spectrum puts it on for us,” said Dedrick. “I really don’t think they get enough of a head nod for that. It’s something that they build into their budget that they do on the behalf of the student association.”