Clubs will be featured during Spring Into Activities Week

Photo description: Josh Burmeister and fellow students look at the potential cross design for CUNE’s outdoor chapel space.

Photo credit: Kayla Korb

Nora Betts

Sower Staff

The Student Senate and Student Life Office are hosting Spring Into Activities Week from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 to increase student involvement in campus clubs, Senate officers said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Spring Into Activities Week takes place for five days from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and features only official, Senate-sponsored clubs. The event is distinct from the Student Activities Fair, which takes place for one night at the beginning of each fall semester and incorporates campus clubs, local businesses, and area churches.

Each day, four or five clubs are assigned to attract students to their tables on the top floor of the Janzow Campus Center, said Secretary Emma VanTol.

“That day, you’ll get a table like you would at the Activities Fair and your job is to promote your club however you choose,” said VanTol.

VanTol said the event takes place for four hours each day to allow students to visit the tables between classes.

“We chose that amount of time because we want to be able to fit into people’s schedules,” VanTol said. “If it’s too short, people can’t come. If it’s too long, people forget to come.”

Spring Into Activities Week was created to reach out to new and transfer students coming to Concordia for the spring semester, as well as current students whose schedules change between semesters.

Outdoor Chapel

Senate members also voted on the tentative design of a new cross to be built and installed at the outdoor chapel behind David dorm. Junior Hannah Helmer is working with the Center for Liturgical Art to design and create the cross.

The approved design is a cross made of metal I-beams and decorated with a wood mosaic.

The vote was split narrowly in favor of a wood mosaic over a glass mosaic. President Aaron Fosse said that since the outdoor chapel is mostly used for Praise worship services at night, a wood mosaic would be more visually appealing than a glass one.

“I think the wood would be a better texture because it’s not like a stained glass window we are going to see,” said Fosse. “Since we’re predominately thinking it’s going to be used at night … I think wood would make a better option.”

Helmer said she would make a digital mockup of the design for final Senate approval before she begins creating the cross.

Fosse said the Senate wants to have the cross ready to be installed once the ground thaws later in the semester.

The Senate has been working on the outdoor chapel since the spring of 2022 and has already installed a platform, an electrical line, benches and a fire pit. The cross is the final step in completing the outdoor chapel project.