A lack of student interest resulted in the cancellation of Gannon University’s Winter Involvement Fair.

The event, which was scheduled to take place Feb. 4 in the Waldron Campus Center, was meant to run similarly to the IgKnight Fair that is hosted in the fall semester.

Victoria Williams, assistant director of Campus Engagement, said that these types of events serve two primary purposes.

“The first is for student organizations to get the word out about their organization and recruit new members,” Williams said.

“The second is to offer a space for new students or students who are looking to get involved the opportunity to learn more about groups on campus.”

The main objective of this fair was to encourage new students, whether that be transfer or global students, to become involved and learn about the organizations on campus.

At the same time, clubs and organizations would have been allowed to provide information, answer questions and recruit new members.

The fall semester IgKnight Fair resulted in plenty of success, for both the university and clubs and organizations, with an overwhelming number of students attending.

Ideas of holding a Winter Involvement Fair did not come out of thin air; last semester the Leadership Development and Campus Engagement Office uploaded a poll onto its Instagram to see if this would be something that students would enjoy.

An overwhelming amount said yes, and the planning process for the winter fair began.

The LDCE office, run by Jamie McCaslin and Williams, reached out to every registered club and organization’s presidents and advisers to let them know about the event so they could sign up and let their respective organizations know.

With such a large success of the IgKnight Fair with over 70 clubs and organizations, a similar outcome was expected.

Williams said her office was hoping to see 40 to 50 organizations register for the winter fair.

“But with less than 10 organizations, it did not seem reasonable to host the event,” said Williams.

The low number of interested groups was very surprising to Williams because of the overwhelming amount of interest in their initial poll in the fall semester.

Looking at the effect that the cancellation of the Winter Involvement Fair had on the organizations that did sign up, it figures to have a negative impact on their recruiting and extension of student involvement.

Ariel Farren, a senior psychology major and president of the service sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma, said the winter fair would have been highly beneficial in the group’s start of recruitment.

“Our recruitment began on Feb. 5 and is continuing throughout the week, so it would have been the perfect setting and time to help get the word out,” Farren said.

Gamma Sigma Sigma and many other organizations that have recruitment in the upcoming weeks may feel the effects from the cancellation of the Winter Involvement Fair.

These organizations rely on bigger campus events to help get information out about their organizations, including what they do, their service work and opportunities to join.

Farren said she wasn’t sure just how much of an impact the cancellation of the Winter Involvement Fair would have on Gamma Sigma Sigma’s recruitment.

“As we are still recruiting, I am unsure if it affected our new member class number or not,” she said. “Our first two recruitment events were low in number, which could be a factor since we wanted to use the fair as a way to advertise.”

With the event being canceled, the number of new members for many organizations may be smaller due to the fact that they could not reach new transfer and global students.

Although the event did not get off the ground this winter, that will not stop the LDCE office from trying to start it up again next year.

The office has hopes of better results and more student participation.

MOLLY BEGEMAN

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