Changes to fair are well received

Since Monday, the patio of the Mayer Campus Center has resembled an open air market: Tables line the patio as students use treats, music, and greetings to entice passersby, essentially acting as vendors hawking their wares: student activities.

According to Assistant Director of the Office of Student Activities Ed Cabellon, Tufts University has 160 student organizations, including both University funded and non-funded organizations. Of these, approximately 140 student groups participated in this year's Student Activities Fair.

This was the first year that the fair was split into three days with cultural, social programming, and media organizations on Monday, religious, performance and arts, and community service organizations yesterday, and pre-professional, political and community organizations, as well as student government today, the last day of the fair.

The new format was in response to organizations' evaluations of the event each year, says Cabellon. "For the last four years, it's always been on one day, and as people know space is premium here. It's been really crowded," he said. "Many groups felt that they were not getting the exposure they really wanted."

He added that the renovations to the patio gave additional space for the event and that the fair is shorter in length from 11-2 p.m. instead of 10-3 p.m.

Changes to the activities fair were well received among student organizations. junior Mahmoud Hatamleh, a member of the Scuba Club, felt that breaking the event into three days was helpful in giving the group, which is only in its second year, the exposure it needs.

"I think it's a good idea to break it into three days because that way you get a chance to see more clubs," he said. "We weren't part of [the activities fair] last year, so this really helps us out."

Despite the changes, some students still found the event to be somewhat congested. "It is a little overwhelming," sophomore Lisa Miller said. "But today isn't as crowded as yesterday, [then] you couldn't even see all that was offered."

Others found that the event was clear in getting its message across -- "I never realized how much there was to do on campus," sophomore Katie Gadkowski said. "[The fair] really does get you involved and makes you aware of what you can do here."