The winter celebration of GrizzFest welcomed students back to Oakland University during the first week of the year, anticipating more collaborations between new and returning student organizations.
Hosted in the Oakland Center’s Ballrooms on Jan. 9, the student organization and local business fair included dozens of tables for clubs to connect with students and celebrate campus engagement.
“I think there’s a lot less people, just because everyone’s stressed out with the new semester starting, they’re not quite as excited,” Sophia Vecchi, Gaming Guild secretary, said. “It’s still nice to see so much enthusiasm, especially for a club like ours, which is much more focused on relaxation after a hard week.”
Much like the Gaming Guild, and as diverse as one can find, clubs at OU have collaboration and inclusion as part of their winter plans.
“This semester we’re sticking to tradition,” Vecchi said. “Just having fun playing board games, but collaborating with other student organizations to sort of bring the joy of gaming to everyone on campus, rather than just our little niche.”
While the Gaming Guild plans on collaborating with SPB to teach students to play traditional card games like poker and blackjack, the Medical Imaging Science Society (MISS) has a combined event in line with the Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences Society.
“We’re a club that likes to unite all the students who are in medical imaging, which is not a well-known major it’s not a well-known profession,” Alex Buraconak, MISS president said. “We’re some of the most important people that work in the hospital and we just like to bring people together to celebrate our profession.”
No matter how small the community, there is something for every aspect of a person, even X-ray, CT and MRI info nights, Buraconak explained.
“There’s something for just about anybody if you’re looking for a specific major, or if there’s something about your personality that you know you can connect with other people about — it’s really awesome,” Buraconak said.
The African Student Union (ASU) embodies this enthusiasm toward creating spaces where people of different backgrounds can connect and enjoy their time at OU.
“I know a lot of people think (ASU) is only for African students, but it’s not. It’s actually a club to show African culture at OU’s campus,” Michele Sende, ASU president, said. “We welcome everyone so they can come and see what being African looks like.”
With winter collaborations and events being part of a rebranding process, Sende explained that the club wants to create a visible staple at OU.
“When people think about the fashion show, we want them to think, ‘Oh, we know it’s the African Student Union doing it with Student Congress,’” Sende said. “ When they hear a taste of Africa, they know, ‘Oh, that’s the African Student Union.’”
Pointing to SPB as a role model of staple events that are now a tradition on campus, Sende explained that ASU wants to foster a greater presence and larger community within the student body — a vision shared by The BRATz.
“BRATz is really about just expressing that individuality and communication through campus,” Kamryn Humphrey, The BRATz’s vice president said. “ When people don’t necessarily have the confidence to do that initial outreach, it’s already there for you to connect. You do not have to do this alone, and that’s something that we really want to focus on.”
A new club, The BRATz aims to form a space that creates friendships, identity and community on campus, Bambie Johnson, The BRATz’s president explained. At the same time, the group aims to create an identity for the club that is recognizable and transcends in the years to come.
“Once we actually got everything together, our community is really great,” Johnson said. “We’re really supportive of one another and we want to encourage more people to come and hang out and be friends.”
