THERESA BALICK
STAFF WRITER
Students crowded the J.C. Williams Center atrium Sept. 13 for the semesterly club fair and browsed the many options for student activities and clubs around campus.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the various clubs on campus set up and manned tables to promote their missions to students. Clubs ranged from Students for Life and the Veritas Society to the Knitting Club and the St. Vitus Social Dance Club. There were also groups such as the Pep Band and the Franciscan University Chesterton Society present at the fair.
Junior Nick Larkins, a member of the Veritas Society, said his club offered what he was looking for when he first came to Franciscan.
“Veritas provided a platform for the kind of intellectual engagement that was not offered through any of the formal activities that Franciscan offers,” Larkins said, adding, “(Veritas) really helped … form a cohesive community, not just among students but among the faculty and staff as well, and, in a lot of ways, help prepare us to engage the world outside of Franciscan.”
Other clubs also focused heavily on the community their club helps to foster.
“We’re doing a creative block … it’s almost like a coffee hour in the JC, so you can come, bring your easel, bring your pen, and you can come and meet other artists,” said Matt Walker, a member of the Student Creative Arts Network (SCAN).
Through these informal meetings, Walker said he hopes SCAN can promote connections among various types of artists. Many other clubs shared Walker’s sentiment and hoped to build the same type of camaraderie among students through their activities.
Some clubs offer extended trips, such as missions to the United Nations during Spring Break, while others simply have weekly meetings. Given students’ ranges of interest, the clubs offer something for everyone and provide opportunities to become more involved with student life on campus.
“I am very excited to see the different activities that take place on campus throughout the year,” said freshman DJ Hostutler, who plans to attend the Board Game Association meeting.