Posted March 23, 2016
Efforts to get UW-River Falls students involved in campus life have been through several changes in the past several years and at least some appear to be working, according to university staff.
Among the changes have been the addition of the Falcon 5 program and the Pick One campaign, both of which aim to get students involved in different events and joining organizations.
More than 300 students on campus have been involved with the Falcon 5 program this school year. The Falcon 5 program encourages students to go to events and at each event swipe their school ID. After attending at least 20 events, students receive a prize.
Student Involvement Events Coordinator Karyn Wells said the program is designed to smooth the transition to life on campus.
“Our hope is to take some of that anxiety, that feeling of being overwhelmed, away from students,” she said.
The Pick One campaign encourages students to choose at least one event or organization to join and is paired with the Falcon 5 program.
Paul Shepherd, director of Student Involvement, said the new programs are seeing results.
“We have seen a steady increase in the Falcon 5,” he said. “I think that is a good indicator because that is a lot of events within the Falcon 5, so you would think if more students are participating at the Falcon 5 that would mean they are attending more events.”
The success of the new programs has led to discussion by Student Senate about expanding and opening up space for student involvement in the University Center. The office space that holds Student Involvement and other services now on the second floor of the University Center would be opened up to create a more interactive area for students.
“Students have really articulated a need to have more interaction space out there than what currently exists and so we have some really specific feedback about things that student leaders and just students in general would like to see,” Shepherd said.
While many students do participate in the Falcon 5 and Pick One programs, others may not due to factors such as school work, jobs and commuting.
Senior Kaiman Stowe, who is a student activities host intern, nonetheless urged students to get involved in campus events and organizations.
“I think is very important for students to get involved,” he said. “It helps them find other activities than the typical college partying activities. It also helps them, you know, get more friends and get more involved in school and I think that is really good.”
The Falcon 5 and Pick One programs are available to all UWRF students and may be found online at http://go.uwrf.edu/falcon5 and http://go.uwrf.edu/PickOne.
The article may be found online at https://uwrfjournalism.org/2016/03/getting-students-involved-in-uwrf-campus-activities-is-seeing-success/.