The beginning of the fall semester is often a time of great excitement. For first-years, the experience of being away at college — and all the newfound freedom that comes with it — is still fresh. The excitement is generally no less palpable for returning students; a new academic year brings the promise of new opportunities and adventures.

It is against this backdrop that one of my personal favorite events of the year takes place — the Fall Involvement Fair. There, most student organizations on campus try to grow their ranks by signing up swarms of — mostly — freshmen for this email list and that GroupMe. It shows the breadth and depth of opportunities for Wake Forest students to get involved — you could join the campus literary magazine, the newspaper, the Ballroom Dancing Club, the Aviation Club, Campus Kitchen…or the campus literary magazine or the newspaper.

That said, I do have one qualm with the Fall Involvement Fair, and that is its location. While Poteat Field is centrally located and certainly has enough space for the hundreds of organizations that attend the fair, it has minimal shading. This would be easily overlooked if the Fall Involvement Fair did not take place during one of the hottest times of day in the throes of summer, but alas, it does.

The latest fair, on Sept. 5, saw heat indices reach 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, according to an EMS volunteer I asked, there were no calls to emergency services about heat exhaustion, but many involved in the fair, myself included, were suffering in the heat. Nearly every student at the fair, on both sides of the table, was soaked with sweat. The most common answer I got when I was tabling and asked “how are you?” was some variant of “hot.”

In all fairness, the Office of Student Engagement did well to manage the event on what was a very hot day. The handheld fans that it provided were life savers and very widely used, especially by those tabling for student organizations. But there should never have been a need to mitigate the effects of weather. Yes, some student organizations are all about performing under pressure and staying in the kitchen when it proverbially gets hot, but the blazing heat is probably not the best place to consider which organizations will shape the next X years of your college career. As such, I firmly believe that the fair should be moved to an indoor location (or locations).

There are distinct advantages to holding the fair inside. The heat is one thing, but something like a thunderstorm or even a rainstorm can (and did last year) postpone the fair, meaning student organizations have to readjust their recruiting schedule and make sure that people are free on the new date to table at the fair. All of these unpleasantries can be avoided by simply holding the fair inside.

In terms of where the fair could be held, there are several options. I recognize that space is an important factor here and is probably the reason why the fair cannot be held solely in Benson, like the fair in January (fewer clubs attend the spring Involvement Fair because many clubs only recruit in the fall). I think the Sutton Center’s multiple basketball courts, one of which is frequently used for student organization events, would work well and would at least keep all of the organizations in the same building. 

But do student organizations need to be in the same building? The involvement fair already divides student organizations by category (e.g. service organizations, media, music, etc.). I could see a situation working where half of the organizations table in Benson and half table somewhere else. This option would also make the fair more manageable for students who may be overwhelmed by seeing all 200+ student organizations all at once (and again, in the blazing heat). 

So, all this to say, I look forward to hearing from my successors at the Old Gold & Black and Three to Four Ounces about the air-conditioned, successful and enjoyable Fall Involvement Fair of 2024.