老司机传媒

You hear it before you see it. The bass-rich booming of huge speakers chugging out nostalgic 2000s pop songs fills your chest with music as you round buildings and arrive at the beating heart of campus. Wednesday, September 29, from 5-8 pm at the Campus Center Lawn. It’s a massive gathering of AU’s campus, a rare occasion in the Covid world of today. Like some flea market with merchants hawking their wares, there’s a plethora of tables and stands set up with the decor of clubs and their merchandise lining the tops. Students bumble, jostle, and squeeze their way through rivers of bodies that flow in every direction. Those who are just passing by have to skirt around the entire lawn to emerge unscathed or risk getting stuck in traffic. The chatter is constant, and you have to yell just to hear your own voice.

So what’s the big deal?

The club fair is a fantastic opportunity to sign up and get involved, especially with other communities and groups you wouldn’t normally interact with outside of your major. On top of that, this year’s fair signals the birth of some new clubs as well as the re-emergence of old clubs resulting from the gradually loosening Covid restrictions.
This fall, the brand-new Fine Arts Club has been brought into existence. According to Finn Larson (sophomore, architecture), “it’s more of a laid back club, where people that appreciate art can come together and participate in different art activities and meet with other like-minded artists.” When asked how the club would advertise to the student body and gain traction, they offered two words that resulted in several sign-up sheets filled to the max: “We’re free!”
Due to the mask policies last year, the Vegan Club has not been able to thrive with its food-centered activities, such as cooking. Many other groups like cultural clubs or churches have faced similar issues, having shut down their potlucks and food services for over a year now. While its inception in 2019 was cut short by the Covid lockdown, it’s finally coming back with a passion for vegan food.

Navigating the club booths can be difficult (especially when some have great elevator pitches) because the costs always add another dimension to students’ decisions. Smaller, laid-back clubs bring the appeal of lower club fees and a more relaxed environment, as opposed to the regular $35 fee for joining the big cultural clubs like BSCF, AFIA, KASA, and SASA*. On the other hand, the bigger and more costly clubs are an investment for a wider range of activities, events, and merch. There are even other ways in which clubs advertise; Architecture Club officer Basam Mahomed El Sayed Gonzalez (sophomore, architecture) says “we have an AIAS (American
Institute of Architecture Students) store [in the architecture building], where we sell things ...so feel free to come in and purchase something from our store. There’s also a lounge, where you can chillax.” The right kind of environment and vibe is most definitely an important part of club appeal. In addition to that, the club merch design on hoodies, sweatshirts, or stickers is an influencing factor on many students’ decisions in choosing a club.

This year, there have been hints of collaborations between clubs for events, such as a future KASA-AFIA-SASA banquet and KASA-AFIA night market. These are exciting new partnerships that are part of a bigger mission to bring Andrews together in an integrated community. For the plans surrounding their 50th year anniversary, BSCF president Khaylee Sands (junior, pre-physical therapy) says “my word for this year is ‘community,’ so I don’t want to be as segregated–I’m looking towards bringing community with other clubs.” Regarding a possible joint event with KASA, she explains, “I’m looking forward to either collab-ing with clubs like that, or with [other] clubs that are non-black, because that’s the way we have integration.” While Andrews can certainly boast a hugely diverse campus, that by itself doesn’t have any powerful implications unless students reach out of their own culture’s bubble and learn about other cultures, eventually creating a community that is ‘inclusive’ in addition to ‘diverse.’ These are some fantastic steps towards building that kind of campus.

The club fair was an impressive display of the vitality that is still present in our students during these times, and the busy planning and hard work behind the scenes leading to this event merely demonstrates the potential of great things to come this year. Even while clubs may not seem as important as the grind for a degree, they are invaluable as a way to really engage with the community of 老司机传媒–especially during a time where the need to engage with others has never been greater.

*Black Student Christian Forum, Andrews Filipino International Association, Korean American Student Association, Southern Asian Student Association, respectively.