Student-run events on campus do not seem to be advertised sufficiently. Sure, the frequent, nightly emails are a smart form of advertising that creates a sense of familiarity for the student, but these emails just don’t have the necessary impact to motivate students to go to these events.

Most of the activities that occur on campus are on the Suffolk Calendar, which is a feature on MySuffolk that not a lot of people seem to look at. And the fact of the matter is, this is the easiest way students can see all of the possible events that they can go to. However, a lot of students are not aware of all the events going on, nor do they have interest. As one student, Brian Horner, states “I don’t see advertisements other than the ones in emails.”

This is an issue that occurs frequently, and it’s also where Program Council creates an advantage. They send out text messages to students on Mondays to notify them of events they host during that week. Receiving a text message is a great way to be notified of what’s going on since students are frequently on their phones.

With the calendar marking down a number of events, it still doesn’t seem to reach the students. There are classes going on during this time and students are busy with other responsibilities, but there needs to be a way to get the message out there so that the very large and diverse student body will attend them. I believe there are a couple of ways that this could be possible.

One way is to have clubs or departments advertise for each other. It would be a great way to get people involved. These clubs already have the attention of whoever is participating so it would be wise to encourage these students to try out other clubs. If the clubs do well by advertising their own events, why not advertise for others?

The Suffolk Journal already does this by including articles in the paper, live tweeting for tables and events and even putting in ads. Moreover, it’s beneficial to both parties. By getting more clubs to continue the effort, the sense of community can only grow since the clubs will be stepping out of solitude and working with and for one another.

Although, that may not be enough. Maybe the student body needs a better system to inform them of all the events going on. I would recommend that we expand the features of the Suffolk Calendar. Why not make it just as important as Blackboard by ensuring that students will be using it every day? All departments, clubs and organizations already post to this calendar, so what’s the harm in having the calendar linked to MySuffolk to allow for a more personalized experience. There could be alerts for when the clubs that a student is interested in posts a new event, thus allowing a student to set preferences for which clubs they would like to see.

Either approach could prove to be very beneficial. The first method would build on the sense of community that Suffolk works so hard to achieve, and the second would help students take responsibility in being active in their day-to-day life. After all, they can’t tell a student to get involved if there isn’t something motivating them to get them involved in all that there is to offer.