lly • President
F. King Alexander greets the cheerleaders
during the Week of Welcome pep rally
and congratulates them on being the
2006 National Champions of the United
Spirit Association. Erika Jones / Online
Forty-Niner
Week
of Welcome kick starts student interest
By
Jeff Laban
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Club members put together booths to advertise their organization as students
hungry for the chance to enter gatherings of their kind looked on. The stage
speakers were ready with music and the pep rally was preparing for its debut.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Week of Welcome officially began, continuing its first
day until 2 p.m.
Divided into seven sections – college councils and academic organizations,
honor and recognition societies, cultural clubs and organizations, service
clubs and organizations, special interest clubs and organizations, Associated
Students Inc. organizations and departments and all the Greek organizations — the
collage on friendship walk provided a diverse community of organizations.
“
It’s saturated with all kinds of information,” said Gabriel Santiago,
senior sociology major. “You don’t see this too often.”
Clubs used different kinds of bait to lure students in and provided pamphlets
filled with details such as the purpose of the organization, if and when the
organization meets and the needed contact information if a student is interested.
Assorted attention grabbers included cookies, candy and lollipops with organization
information tied around them. The salsa club performed a few dances for the
public while the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity displayed a total of five trophies,
including the Inter-Fraternity Sports Champion trophy and Presidents Cup.
“
We believe in community service as well as the comradery of brotherhood and
networking,” said Daniel Calderon, a junior criminal justice major and
member of the fraternity.
The Alpha Omicran Pi sorority displayed stuffed animal pandas, shirts with
catchy phrases such as “KISS ME I’M PI-RISH” and a photo
mixture of previous events in which the sorority had participated. A mixture
of fraternities used giant wooden letters to draw eyes to their booths.
“
We were one of the first campuses to use giant wooden letters,” said
Tyler Whaley, a senior civil engineering major. “They draw attention,
and people travel over to ask what they are. San Diego State created them after
seeing our colleges.”
Week of Welcome introduced students to clubs they may not have known existed,
such as the cricket club.
“
We challenge other school cricket teams,” said Arun Gazula, a junior
computer science major and cricket club president.
“
We have a winter league, and are in the quarter finals with three wins verses
a loss. Equipment is expensive, so we offer members free usage as well as Saturday
practices for serious students.”
While clubs usually recruit for members, sport clubs like the ice hockey club
also look for fans.
“
The playoffs are in two weeks,” said Kevin Lighter, senior finance major
and former vice president of the ice hockey club.
“
We’re out here to promote awareness of the team, and recruit fans as
well as players.”
To keep spirits high during the affair, the new student orientation commissioner
for ASI organized a line dance. Instructor Gina Johnson taught students lined
up in the field the art of the line dance.
“
I found Gina through the Cowboy Country Web site and contacted her by e-mail,””said”Michelle
Cooper,”a senior psychology major and head of the New Student Orientation
Commission for ASI.
There were two segments of dance, with the first wave averaging about 70 people
and the second about 60. Volunteers were first taught necessary moves such
as the kick ball and box step in count rhythm and then performed to music.
“
The Homecoming next week is 49er Days — How the Beach was Won,” Cooper
said. “We chose a Western theme to go along with it.”
The first day of Week of Welcome introduced students to different clubs including
sororities and fraternities, sports teams and others, while also offering voluntary
entertainment.
“
This was pretty good.” said Mark Kustera, a freshman psychology major. “I
like how all the groups are together so I can see what I’m interested
in. Plus you get a lot of free stuff.”
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