Clubs Week showcases student opportunities

By Saima Asad, September 27 2016 —

The semi-annual Clubs Week event took over MacHall once again from Sept. 20–23. The event, which happens every semester, gives clubs an opportunity to recruit and offer students a chance to see what organizations are available to join.

Students’ Union vice-president student life Patrick Ma called the event a huge success.

“[It] was even more of a success than last year,” he said.

There are 317 active clubs at the University of Calgary, 219 of which attended Clubs Week. Each day, 114 different clubs occupied the MacHall courtyards to advertise and recruit new members.

The event’s layout had to change this year to allow space for 20 more clubs than last year.

Clubs went all out to gain students’ attention. One of this year’s notable sights was a giant sandwich named Sammy advocating  for Spread the Love — a charitable club that aims to feed the homeless. Other tactics employed by clubs included parking a motorcycle by their booth or blasting loud music.

First-year open studies student Duncan Jagger and fourth-year engineering student Joje Jeyanathan said they were just browsing the area for clubs that interested them, though Jagger did sign up for the University of Calgary Pre-law Society.

“The goal of Clubs Week is to help connect students with student organizations that share certain interests or values. It’s a great way for students to connect with other students [and] find groups that they feel a belonging to,” Ma said.

A wide variety of clubs were present, ranging from academic clubs like the Chemical and Oil & Gas Engineering Student’s Society to charitable and activist clubs like Oxfam and general interest clubs like the Game Design Club.