William Jewell College’s College Union Activities (CUA) and Student Life office intend to provide student support. The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated this pursuit, as many CUA events are in-person, large gatherings.

Kristin Wooldridge, director of student engagement, described the challenges CUA has faced due to COVID-19.

“The biggest issue is gathering larger groups safely. In a normal year, popular events like CUAt the Movies have over 375 attendees that take over the B&B Northland Theatre. That is not possible right now. To have events that are safe enough and not being a superspreader due to crowd size is an ongoing conversation,” said Wooldridge.

At the beginning of the semester, CUA hosted more in-person events but are now focusing on what they can do to support students.

“During the opening of campus, CUA hosted Grocery Bingo outside on the Quad, Twilight Yoga and a concert on Greene Field. CUA has shifted to focusing on what is possible to bring joy to the student experience. Starting the first Friday in October, there has been a food truck for students from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. This is a great avenue for students to enjoy free food and keep their distance safely. Plus, the food vendors are watching all the safety protocols. Food trucks are planned through November 13th,” Wooldridge said.

“One event has been canceled and we still have a credit with our trivia vendor,” Wooldridge continued. “That was canceled with the campus changed to level C during Orientation. Trivia was supposed to be hosted on Greene Field. Our Trivia DJ is now able to host virtual trivia and that might be scheduled in early November.”

Wooldridge described how student organizations have worked to host meetings and events.

“Many student organizations have been creative with meeting outside and with masks/social distance inside,” said Wooldridge. “They are working well with their advisors to make sure events are safe.”

Wooldridge explained that CUA is doing the best it can given the current circumstances and restrictions.

“When we can host more events in person, we will. I believe that people are created for community, and it has been hard not to provide more options. By partnering with [residence life], student [organizations] and Greek Life, we are finding new ways to have smaller sized events that can be safe for the community and follow [Operation Safe Campus] protocols,” said Wooldridge.

Students have primarily missed having CUAt the movies – a typically popular event. Wooldridge described how she’s tried to update CUA’s approach and accommodate the desire for movies.

“I have upgraded and replaced CUA’s inflatable screen and projector to make it easier to host movie nights. CUA also covers the $350 movie licensing that is required to host a movie inside or outside for up to 100 students. I work with our contact at SWANK to make this happen as many times as possible. Of course, Missouri weather can greatly [affect] outdoor movie nights and we have had to reschedule a couple.”

Wooldridge concluded by describing CUA’s plans for the future. 

“We hope to host the trivia night virtually and plan for spring semester since we have the food trucks leading up until Thanksgiving Break when the campus goes fully virtual,” said Wooldridge.

Karges began the night in front of a whiteboard that listed the 26 most commonly used words in the English language. Before throwing some newspapers into the audience, which would be taken apart, passed around and ripped until only one word was present per piece of paper, Karges told the audience that the word present on the piece of paper randomly selected from an audience member would be one among those listed on the whiteboard.

The student chosen read aloud his piece of paper, which said “makeover” —  a word not present among the 26 listed words. Karges feigned embarrassment for a few tense seconds before flipping over the whiteboard to display the word “makeover,” provoking screams of amazement from the audience.

Karges (right) pretends to be flustered after first-year Hunter O’Connor read aloud the word “makeover” which did not align with the list of common words Karges’ wrote on a whiteboard behind him.

The rest of Karges’ illusory repertoire followed along the same vein and received similar reactions. He appeared to be able to read the minds of any student in the audience, from knowing the names of the parents of one student to guessing the phone number of another. His final illusion involved the seemingly telekinetic movement of a table across the stage of Gano Assembly.

Though some audience members assumed Karges had affiliates in the audience surreptitiously picking up information for the act, Karges was adamant that his illusions were a one-man job.

“I will give $100,000 to anyone who can find evidence that I have associates in the audience,” Karges said.

Karges insisted that his work could be replicated by anyone and revealed to the audience that a small shift in the way they think could boost their brain power dramatically. He ended his performance by promoting his book, titled “Ignite Your Intuition,” which was available for sale after the show.

Copies of Karges’ book, “Ignite Your Intuition,” sat on the edge of the Gano Assembly stage during the show.

Several students, mostly first-years, attended the Fair. The large number of groups present at the Fair showcased the wide range of interests that Jewell students have. Groups in attendance included: WJC Ballroom Dance, oSTEM, Non-Profit Leadership Association and Greek Life. 

In addition to the excitement of finding activities to join, students were treated to snow cones courtesy of CUA.

Maggie Knesel, senior nonprofit leadership and Spanish major, worked at the Zeta Tau Alpha table during the event and spoke to the Hilltop Monitor about her experience with the Fair throughout her years at Jewell.

“The Activities Fair is a really good way for all the first-years to have their first experience with the Jewell community. It’s also really nice, as an upperclassman, to be able to see my friends before the new year begins,” Knesel said. “Even as a senior, I find new clubs that I wish I would have joined last year. Even though it’s aimed towards first-years the event is good for everyone.”

Many clubs can look forward to new members thanks to the interest built at the Activities Fair.

Photo by: Mykala Crews.

New student groups on campus are provided with $200 as a starting budget. If the group requires more funding, it must do its own fundraising. The starting budget is provided only for a group’s first year.

“Each organization is expected to be sustainable by your own fundraising efforts or dues. There are some organizations that collect dues from members. So we just like each person, each organization, to think about that as they’re going through the process [of organizing],” said Shelly King, Dean of Students.

However, groups can go to Student Life and request more funds. The groups must present a specific reason or event for which the extra money is needed.

“It’s not to say that you might come in and ask for funding for something. If you guys have a speaker that fits your student organization, you can go to Senate, you can come to Student Life or CUA and say, ‘Hey, let’s collaborate,’” said King.

CUA and Student Senate are fully funded by the Activities Fund. The Activities Fund comes out of student tuition. Senate and CUA are given set budgets from the College because they do programming for the student body as a whole, not only a specific group of students.

“The CUA budget is for everyone. Take full advantage of your activity fee by going to everything that’s programmed. Don’t leave college without [going],” said Kristin Wooldridge, Coordinator of Student Activities.

The budgets for CUA and Senate are usually the same every year. However, this year, Senate received a larger budget than in the past. The funds were specified to be given out to other groups on campus.

“This is the first year we dropped extra money in their budget, but typically Senate’s budget is the same every year. With the idea that they’re programming and they’re doing great, they know to come to Student Life and say, ‘Hey, we’re almost out of budget dollars, can we collaborate and can we kind of pair together and both sponsor this,’ and we’ve done that quite a bit,” said King.

Senate has always had money set aside to give out to student organizations that request it. Student groups that would like to receive more money can attend meetings and request more from cabinet members. The increase in this aspect of the budget came about because cabinet members from the previous school year requested it. The increase is also meant to go toward more Student Senate programming.

“Senate has always had that aspect [of giving funds to organizations]. They’re programming more because we like Senate to program. Not only give money away, but do more,” said Tracy Hart, administrative assistant.

This aspect of Senate may seem new, but in reality, it has always been in place. It has been a lesser known practice.

“I think they’re just telling people better about that,” said Wooldridge.

Senate often teams up with Student Life to provide more funds to student groups on campus who request it. It is often a collaborative effort.

“With other groups that will come, sometimes we’ll say, ‘You know what, if Senate gives money, we’ll match what Senate gives,’ up to a certain dollar amount,” said King.

While most organizations keep any surplus budget at the end of the fiscal year, Senate and CUA’s leftover dollar amounts are returned to the school. This is because the two groups do not fundraise independently of the College.

If student organizations are in need of more money, they can go to Senate or Student Life for assistance.

“Our student leaders, they’re very creative and when you’re trying to do some really good positive things, we don’t want the money to be a hindrance for you doing these great things for the student body. So let us step in and we’ll help fund some of it. Because we want students to enjoy and not be held back by their budget when they’re doing really great, quality things for our student body,” said King.