Planning an event on campus just a got a whole lot easier. The Student Senate recently created a new website and guidelines that will make your life much simpler if your club is requesting money for an event. In addition, a new club specially designed to promote awareness of activities on campus has been created this semester to help you plan and promote a successful event. Not in a club but looking for more activities and fun things to get involved in on campus? With these new campus features you should be able to find something going on every day of the week.

The new website and guidelines were developed by the Student Events and Organizations Committee of the Senate and have been dubbed “SEOC 2.0.” Andy Donaldson, Chairman of SEOC believes that this new program will allow clubs to plan their events more efficiently. “I’m really excited about this, hopefully by instituting this new simpler process we will have more events and be able to develop a broader sense of community,” he said.

But before you get too excited and start requesting money from SEOC to fund your event, there are a few other things you should do first.

“First step is reserving a space,” said Chuck Zeogas, President of the Entertainment and Promotions Club, “If you don’t have a space, you can’t have an event. A lot of clubs will forget that and will plan an entire event, won’t get a space and will have to cancel.” Chuck would know about requesting space, he works part time for the Campus Center.

The Entertainment and Promotions club was created for the specific purpose of getting more events on campus and promoting them. The Club attempts to get students more involved by letting them know about all the opportunities that they have around them. Multiple times a week the Event and Promotions Club sets up a table on the Campus Center terrace every Tuesday to pass out fliers and inform people about events. They also have an email list that anybody can get on if they want to be informed about any events.

If you are looking to create an event make sure you plan early. Chuck Zeogas emphasizes early planning. Requesting space is the most important thing, and should be done up to three months in advance, especially if it is a large event you are putting on. Zeogas and the promotions club are happy to help out with tips on how to plan your event, and can help you promote your event a bit too.

Looking for an event to go to sometime soon? You can head on up to the Student Life offices any time and ask about events. The last week of November and first part of December should be host to events on campus in preparation for the banner raising ceremony to take place on December 2nd. Last year the men’s basketball won their division championship and the celebration will be on Saturday December 2 in the Clark Athletic Center. The week prior to the game there will be a basketball shootout game in the Campus Center and the winners will receive prizes.

If there is no event on campus that you are interested in, then go ahead and create your own! Use the resources that SEOC 2.0 and the Events and Promotions club provides in order to plan any event you wish, be it underwater basket weaving tournaments, stock market investment instructional seminars, Brazilian jiu jitsu practice, or anything else.

Remember, you can always go ahead and start your own club as well. Just head on up to Student Life and tell them you are interested. “Getting involved in a student club or activities is some of the best real life experience you can get for the work world. And that’s a fact,” said Chuck Zeogas.

The Events and Promotions club is also in the process of getting all the clubs and centers together for one large multi-cultural festival. The event is still in the planning stage, but they hope to have a large activities based event that each group would be able to participate in.