Kailynn Bannon
Opinions Editor
Multiple times a school year, the student body comes together for a mandatory one hour sit down to listen to a guest speaker and partake in other school traditions. This year however, Convocation was presented in a brand new, student-run fashion which seemed to be a nice change of pace.
At this semester’s assembly, organizations made announcements, introduced initiatives and presented student life. Organizations such as the Student Government Association, Association of Campus Entertainment, Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils and the Multicultural Student Council stood on the stage of Branscomb Auditorium and introduced their executive boards to everyone.
After introducing many opportunities to get engaged on campus and announcing the headliner for Southern Takeover, every student and faculty member was able to grab a free Red Friday T-Shirt, a new initiative announced by SGA.
This Convocation was entirely led by students, becoming the first of its kind. This made it much more relatable for the audience.
Many students try to avoid attending the involuntary assembly by submitting excuses to the school. Creating a more engaging environment, and of course offering free stuff, is a great way to get people to show up. However, does attendance still need to be required if these changes become permanent?
While seniors are not required to attend Convocation, does a junior or sophomore need to hear information that they’ve probably heard several times before? It is already easy enough for anyone to get out of it by submitting an excuse, coming in late when check-ins have stopped or simply walking out the side doors.
Switching up the way Convocation is presented often is bound to keep more students interested in attending. But making the event mandatory turns people off from the whole thing.
Tommy Anderson, President of ACE and Vice President of Student Activities for SGA says the whole student-led Convocation idea started from the Red Friday Every Friday campaign. In order to give out the T-shirts to every student and faculty member, there had to be a gathering big enough to do so.
“Over the summer, SGA was working on the Red Friday Every Friday campaign and we were thinking of a few ways we could introduce it to the entire student body,” Anderson said.
Part of the campus already wore red once a week, but SGA had talked about making it official over the past couple years.
The discussion of having students lead this semester’s Convocation led to the idea of it being completely focused on campus life.
Having the students take charge and present to their friends and classmates sets a good example of ways that anyone can get involved.
“I think it’s very powerful to see your peers and your friends up there,” Anderson said.
This was catered towards first and second years who may not know a lot about the clubs and organizations on campus, as well as upperclassmen who want to get more involved outside of class.
After the success of the newly reimagined event, the school informed the presenters that they are interested in doing a Convocation like this at the start of every fall semester.
While SGA’s goal for the afternoon was to disperse their free shirts, ACE and other organizations’ objectives were to introduce or reintroduce themselves to the student body. ACE also continued their tradition of announcing the artists for Southern Takeover.
This change of pace is refreshing for students, who get to watch their own peers on stage and better relate to them then they would a guest speaker. However, a meeting such as this one should not be necessary to attend.
Making any event mandatory will cause anyone to feel like they are attending against their will to avoid being fined $75, not because they want to enjoy being there. It makes sense to have a mandatory school-wide gathering once in a while to keep everyone up-to-date, but every Convocation should not require attendance. Students get weary of attending the same function repeatedly if they are forced to show up, which will take the fun out of the gatherings, especially one as informal as the new student-led model.
Anderson also thinks the student life Convocations don’t need to be mandatory, and that students would still want to show up anyways for the giveaways and announcements.
“One thing about this incoming class already [is that] they’ve just been so active,” Anderson said. “Attendance has been up everywhere.”
ACE held a comedy show at the beginning of the month that usually would have usually averaged 30-40 people, but saw 114 people attend instead.
“It was definitely an increase that we’re happy about and we love the enthusiasm from the incoming class,” Anderson said.
Students are more likely to attend events if they are engaging and relatable. Making anything mandatory won’t dramatically affect the outcome of attendance because students will always be able to find a way around the school’s requirements. Hopefully FSC will take this into account for their future assemblies.
