by Alexandra Purcell

There was a concern about a lack of student events last semester according to the team in the office of Student Engagement and Leadership. That’s exactly what a group of people representing different clubs on campus met to discuss Thursday Jan. 26.

More than 70 representatives of student organizations at Colorado State Universtiy-Pueblo met at the Student Organization Summit. The meeting, put on by CSU-Pueblo’s Student Engagement and Leadership, was hosted on campus from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the General Classroom Building.

The focus of the summit was to encourage students to think about planning events to be hosted by their respective organization or club.

“A big part of life on campus is our student organizations,” said Juliette Mogenson, a graduate assistant in the office of Student Engagement and Leadership. “We have lots of funding available to help the clubs put on events.”

This funding, however, expires at the end of the academic year. “If we don’t use it, we lose it,” Mogenson said. “We want to make sure that the organizations utilize the resources we can provide.”

A lack of student organization events prompted Mogenson, who is in charge of coordinating agendas for the semiannual summits, to shape the meeting around informing and encouraging clubs to take advantage of the assets available to them through Student Engagement and Leadership.

Before the meeting began, representatives of individual clubs were asked to fill out a blank notecard with ideas for events their club might be interested in coordinating over the course of the semester. These notecards were then collected by agents of Student Engagement and Leadership for use in a planning activity later on.

“I thought that was cool,” said Jacob Ward, a freshman representing Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Speech and Debate Team at the summit. “In my opinion, getting us involved in a hands-on activity was much better than lecturing us.”

Attendees of the meeting were divided at random into six different groups. Each was given one of the notecards and asked to go about planning the event as though they were the organization interested in putting it on. To do so, they had to consider a budget, possible venues and times, and how to incentivize students to attend.

After the mock planning, the groups were invited to the front of the room to present their ideas to the rest of the group, respond to any questions, and receive constructive feedback regarding their proposals.

“I think it definitely helped,” said Ward. “I learned a lot about planning and organizing events. That’ll come in handy in the future.”

“Events on campus are a great way to get your name out there and gain awareness for clubs,” said Mogenson. “Getting attention and student involvement is what it’s all about.”

Every student organization on campus is required to attend the twice-annual summits, which are held at the beginning of the fall semester as well as the start of the spring semester. Currently, CSU-Pueblo recognizes 55 unique clubs.