Due to COVID-19 impacts, freshmen, club presidents, and club advisors find themselves adapting and discovering new ways to overcome their losses at this year’s club fair.

The club fair is held to show students the available clubs for the year. The coronavirus caused the 2020 club fair to be canceled, and this year, it will only be open to freshmen. 

After losing members due to graduation, Herpetology Club President Abigail Gladwell is looking forward to this year’s club fair. 

“With not having club fair last year, we found it really hard to find new members when we did not have very many in the first place,” Gladwell said, “so it is definitely going to be helpful to have club fair this year.”

Gladwell has come to modify her approach to recruitment. 

“We might bring a couple bearded dragons and a leopard gecko down this year, instead of just one animal to try and get more attention,” she said.

COVID-19 safety protocols are integrated into many clubs. The Herpetology Club has made adjustments to include safety precautions.

“We all wear masks,” Gladwell said. “We wash our hands quite a lot during club meetings, and we try to stay apart as much as we can.” 

Members of the Herpetology club only make physical contact when transferring animals between each other. Gladwell is also going to refrain from physical forms of greeting at the club fair.

Just as Gladwell and her club have faced repercussions from COVID-19, the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Club has also had to adapt. 

“There are a number of trips that typically are taken like Outfest and the Pride Festival. One is in October, and one is in June, that just completely could not be done last year, and even this year is still a little hairy because we already know field trips are not happening,” GSA Club co advisor Jon Timmons said. 

 During the 2020-2021 school year, students had the option of online schooling. The GSA Club experienced a loss in members due to the amount of graduating students and online members. 

“Some seniors last year were entirely online, so they could not be a part of [GSA],” Timmons said. 

Some freshmen have made alterations to their club searching. The Coronavirus has increased freshman Shannon Stover’s drive to join a club. 

“I want to join a club more because it would help me get out of my shell after being in it for so long,” Stover said.

According to Timmons, good times can be found in the clubs students see at the club fair. Timmons finds some of his own happiness in the GSA.

“I like seeing that group of students be in a space where they feel they can be authentic and themselves,” Timmons said, “To see them come into this space and talk to their friends, relax and be authentic, and express themselves the way they want to is really cool.”

Timmons says it is not just freshmen who need exposure to the clubs at the fair. 

“It seems like every year there is something new. Maybe there are new advisors or something different, so I think limiting it to just freshmen squashes things a bit.”