Sunday of Welcome Week is known around campus as Quad Day, the organized chaos that has hundreds and hundreds of RSOs recruiting new members to help their programs grow. According to Dementro Powell, assistant director of student programs and activities, out of the 650-700 clubs that will be tabling around the Main Quad, 20-30 of them will be new.

This is an 8 percent increase compared with last year. Powell also said that the opportunities the Office of Registered Organizations provides allow for expansion and a “wide variety of RSOs.”

Despite this increase in new RSO presence, some fledgling organizations will not be present because of the $28 fee to procure a table. For organizations like EdCamp at UIUC, the fee is too steep. 

Sara Zaher, president of EdCamp at UIUC and senior in LAS, explained the decision to not participate in Quad Day.

“To put it simply, because we are a relatively new organization, we didn’t have the funds to draw from to cover the cost of Quad Day,” Zaher said. “In terms of our personal funds, we decided to use those instead to have flyers made in order to distribute and post information around campus at the time.”

Zaher and her vice president, Michelle Kohs, senior in LAS, both believe that flyers will be an efficient way to spread the word about EdCamp. Because of the nature of the organization’s relation to education, the RSO is working on hosting informational sessions with the help of advising from secondary education as well as collaborating with EdCampCU at the Pygmalion Festival in lieu of Quad Day.

Zaher finds that the Quad Day fee is a strain for new clubs, especially if they do not have outside support.

“I think new clubs should be provided with the same opportunity for a discount that currently only applies to a select group,” she said. “We are lucky enough to have groups of people both within the education department and in the Champaign community who support these ideas and what we’re doing and are willing to help with advertisement through alternative means.”

Despite the fees, Powell believes that tabling can only help new RSOs.

“They get new members and get experience talking with new members,” he said. “New RSOs are also able to actually talk with other organizations who are more well established and will have a great visual of what other organizations have. They’ll see what they are bringing and how they are attracting other members.”

Powell also has advice for RSOs new to Quad Day.

“Try to have as much information available as possible and have a follow-up plan,” Powell said. “Quad Day can be quite congestive. A lot of people flock to clubs who are more well known.”

Powell also wants RSOs to know that Quad Day isn’t the only opportunity to table and that they should ask the Office of Registered Organizations about days throughout the year that they would have the chance to table.

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