By Mark Blanton and Chandler Wright
This week The SOURCE will be hosting a three-day Get on Board: Trio Edition for students to seek more specific involvement opportunities on campus, after receiving input from organizations and freshmen following last semester’s event.
DJ Jackson, director of organizational outreach for The SOURCE, said the changes are the result of input from students and student organizations on campus.
“This year at The SOURCE we have been evaluating the effectiveness of our initiatives in an effort to best provide resources for both students across campus, as well as student organizations,” Jackson said. “We surveyed student organization officers, as well as current university freshmen, and found that student organizations are looking to recruit students for their spring projects and initiatives, while freshmen are seeking specific involvement opportunities.”
Jackson said The SOURCE hopes to provide a meaningful experience for student organizations and students looking to be involved on campus.
“By dividing the organizations into multiple days based on type, we hope to provide a more meaningful experience for both parties,” Jackson said. “The goal of fall GOBD is to exhibit all that the University has to offer, but for spring we’ve developed a more focused approach.”
Emily Dowdell, director of communications for The SOURCE, said the event’s schedule is based on the survey results and is designed to provide the maximum benefit to the students and organizations involved.
“This semester’s Get on Board Day schedule was based on feedback from current freshman and student organization leaders,” Dowdell said. “We scheduled the event for this week so that students would have the chance to get back in the swing of things and really be able to target specific involvement opportunities that interest them.”
Anna Turkett, president of Alabama Environmental Council, said ECo chooses to be involved with Get on Board Day every year because of the opportunities to meet interested students and potential members.
“We chose to get involved because it’s one of the best opportunities for people to join groups on campus,” Turkett said. “It’s a huge group of people who are all interested in various groups and we wanted to make sure to be a part of it. It’s one of the only large scale opportunities for recruitment, outside of tabling in the Ferg. And being the only environmental stewardship and action group on campus, we know that people will be seeking us out.”
Although ECo is involved with Get on Board Day this semester, Turkett said the new schedule may inhibit certain students from seeing all potential student groups.
“I think it will have a different turnout because of the three-day nature of the event,” she said. “Although it could be helpful for some people who have class during one of the days, there are different categories each day, so one could still miss the group they were seeking. It is also possible that people may not know which category a certain group would be in and may not be able to find it, but I understand that The SOURCE is always looking for more ways to help students get involved at our own convenience.”
The schedule for Get on Board: Trio Edition can be found online at thesource.ua.edu/gobd.
