Barnard Activities Fair

The Barnard College Activities Fair comes to the Quad lawn at a time of disruption on the College’s campus.

More than 70 student groups will come together today from noon to 3 p.m. to recruit members and to work on uniting in the face of new obstacles created by the construction of the Nexus. With the loss of precious meeting space and old resources, this year’s Activities Fair will facilitate necessary connections between student groups looking to navigate through immense campus change.

“There is less space, so this fair gives groups the opportunity to reach out to other groups on campus and interact with each other,” said Christina Chang, BC ’08 and SGA Vice President of Student Activities.

Student groups are feeling the impact of construction taking over campus and the loss of the College’s popular McIntosh Student Center.

“It has affected us in small ways,” said Deborah Bloch, BC ’08 and president of the Barnard Pre-Health Students Organization. “We don’t have a club mailbox, and we relied on that a lot last year. There are also a lot less event spaces available on campus.”

Group leaders will have to go to new lengths to secure space, since finding meeting places was difficult even before the demolition of McIntosh, and many groups are expecting increased competition for scheduling events in Lerner Hall.

“We’re just going to have to decide more in advance when we’re going to do things so we can reserve space earlier,” said Brittany Mello, BC ’08 and president of BarnardEarth. “Hopefully it won’t make us not want to do events that we’d otherwise want to do.”

The affected groups are finding creative ways to deal with space issues. For example, the Barnard Pre-Health Students Organization has decided to hold their initial meetings in Bloch’s dorm room and will continue to do so if they are unable to reserve sufficient space elsewhere. Other groups see the space shortage as an opportunity to combine forces with groups of similar interest.

“The lack of space might bring more groups together,” Mello said. “It’s just not as practical for groups to have their own small events now. It will be that much better if groups come together, and we’ll be able to have a really big event that a lot more people will know about and come to.”

SGA, whose office has been relocated to 239 Brooks Hall due to construction, hopes that the Activities Fair will also provide them with the opportunity to interact with student groups. Currently, SGA is working to alleviate the burden of the space deficit and to introduce the Quad as an alternative place for student gatherings.

“One of my goals is to promote better communication between clubs and SGA. I want to help them find space,” Chang said. “We are trying to work with Quad Lawn because of the construction.”

Chang stressed that student groups should approach SGA with any problems.

“We are slowly trying to get people to come to the new office,” she said. “We are trying our best to reach out to people and let them know we’re still here.”

Jackie Kazarian and Stephanie Turner can be reached at jackie.kazarian@columbiaspectator.com and stephanie.turner@columbiaspectator.com, respectively.