Thousands of students flocked to the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC) Monday night to participate in the Welcome Week event Late Night at the ARC to learn about the various non-academic organizations on campus.
Late Night at the ARC is an annual event that began in 1988 and has introduced students to a wide array of extracurriculars on campus.
A variety of club demonstrations and intramural tournaments took place throughout the night to expose students to the vast assortment of extracurricular activities on campus. To enhance the festive atmosphere, the ARC hosted various attractions, such as a prize wheel.
“The number of people who come out to the event always increases by a great amount,” said ASUCI Administrative Affairs Retention and Recruitment Commissioner Arturo Razo. “There were an increased amount of activities and class ‘samples’ available for students to try and learn. More rooms are being utilized and there are more games happening.”
Late Night at the ARC allows student organizations to expand their club membership and talk to students they missed at the Anteater Involvement Fair in Aldrich Park. Sport clubs such as the lacrosse, water polo, swimming, dodgeball and basketball clubs used this event to recruit and pique the interest of curious students. Students interested in intramural tournaments could also sign up for them.
Although freshmen are the primary targets of most organizations and clubs, many upperclassmen have also developed an interest in the abundance of sports and clubs on campus.
“I mainly went to the event to check out the clubs and work out” said second-year Spanish major Maribel Comparan. “I did not sign up for any clubs, but they were all very interesting!”
The event officially began at 8:00 pm, but lines stretching out to the parking lot began to form long before the start time.
Most students immediately sought to receive their free shirts and proceeded to form lines inside the basketball court area and outside in the pool area.
Groups of curious Anteaters attended several demonstrations by the Kendo club, Taekwondo club and other martial arts groups throughout the night.
The large mass of students began to diminish as the night progressed and more students received their free shirts.
With students being exposed to a wide variety of extracurriculars, Razo hopes that students will take advantage of these resources in order to relieve stress from their academic life.
“The event helps students find out more information about a resource they have available to them,” explained Razo. “With the proper incentives, students can know where to relieve some stress from classes.”
