The Student Activities Fair, an annual New Student Orientation tradition hosted by the Student Activities Council, was cancelled Monday due to heavy rain. It is rescheduled for Friday.
SAC is urging student groups to post virtual fliers advertising their organizations onto Virtual Locust. The Tumblr site was created over the summer and was launched to the student body Monday as a way to advertise their clubs to new students despite the weather.
According to SAC chair Melissa Roberts, a College senior, the site had approximately 5,000 hits in the first hour it was released and 18,000 page views in the first day, with 1,400 unique visitors overall.
Roberts said the fair had to be rescheduled because “there is no indoor space that would have fit that many tables” on campus. There are 380 student groups under the umbrella organization SAC, and there were approximately 200 tables signed up for the fair this afternoon, Roberts added.
Student groups must sign up again for a table at Friday’s fair, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Locust Walk.
Roberts said she expects a large turnout for Friday but “depending on how many groups sign up, it may be smaller.”
Virtual Locust was originally intended to help groups hand out fliers throughout the semester, but came to use Monday due to the cancellation.
Roberts added that in her time as a Penn student, she has never seen this happen.
The rescheduling was more disruptive toward student groups who had planned recruitment events and first general body meetings this week, before the new date for the fair.
Penn Student Government is holding its first information session tonight. College junior Dan Bernick, Undergraduate Assembly president, said that like many other organizations, the UA was “absolutely affected” and will have to “double [its] efforts.”
He added that these groups may have to be more creative with their recruitment strategies and that “the new students, both freshmen and transfers, will have to be more proactive in order to find all that Penn has to offer.”
Bernick applauded SAC on their use of the Virtual Locust site, which has been consistently used by student groups since its launch Monday morning.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.