Reems Landreth
Blast Off has been marked as the largest event in recent FSC history after 1,429 students swiped into Jenkins Field House on August 21.
According to SGA Executive Vice President Arjeet Tipirneni, around 95 clubs and organizations attended this year’s event. Tipirneni described himself as “over the moon” with the results.
SGA President Natalie Barton said that it was “incredible” to see Jenkins Field House so busy and filled. “I think the exciting increase of attendance at this year’s blast of shows the new presence of SGA on campus,” said Natalie Barton said.
This was the first year that Interfraternity Council (IFC) and National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) affiliates were not invited to table at Blast off; they were granted their own event on August 24th.
According to IFC Vice President Bryce Gressani, members of greek life were skeptical about the event, “Meet the Greeks,” due to the lack of attendance at last semester’s event of the same name.
Gressani said in a message that IFC tripled the amount of students signed up for recruitment. “Personally, I feel extremely confident that even though individual organizations will no longer be at Blast Off, Greek life can still continue to be a huge presence on campus,” Gressani said.
Panhellenic Vice President of Recruitment Ava Zisman said that over 500 students attended the event. She also said that enrollment is already higher than this time last year because of Meet the Greeks.
“I think keeping Meet the Greeks and Blast Off separate will be beneficial to everyone because it allows other organizations to have more space at Blast Off and have more focus on them instead of all the Greek Organizations,” Zisman said.
Fraternity Recruitment will take place from September 17 to 20 with a kick-off event on September 16. Fraternity Bid Day will be September 22.
Sorority Recruitment will take place from September 21 to 23 with a kick-off event on September 20. Sorority Bid Day will be September 24.