Good weather makes Quad Day shine

By Allison Sues

The spacious Quad and surrounding areas transformed Tuesday to host 600 registered student organizations’ booths. An estimated 10,000 wandering students explored the numerous opportunities available for them to get involved on campus.

In addition to the RSO tables, Quad Day included three stages constantly showcasing student performances ranging from martial arts demonstrations to hip hop dancers and rock bands.

As opposed to previous years’ sweltering hot or rainy Quad Days, Tuesday offered much sun with a cooling breeze.

“The weather allowed this to be a wonderful day,” Quad Day Coordinator Brook Moore said. “It was non-stop looking all day.”

Every year the 12-member Quad Day committee tweaks the program to fix problems of previous years, Moore said. This year’s Quad Day partnered with the Daily Illini to publish a map with all RSO tables’ locations in a special Quad Day section.

Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!

  • Catch the latest on University of Illinois news, sports, and more. Delivered every weekday.
  • Stay up to date on all things Illini sports. Delivered every Monday.
Thank you for subscribing!

“That helped a lot,” Moore said. “There is no better way to make that many maps available.”

Quad Day also expanded to include areas south of Foellinger Auditorium and areas in-between each lecture hall that lines the Quad. This allowed for 50 more RSO tables.

Even with the 50-table expansion, only half of the available RSOs obtained a spot on the Quad. Moore said more than 100 RSOs are turned down from Quad Day each year.

“We are always thinking about expanding and making Quad Day bigger and bigger,” Moore said. “But where do we expand to? Will Quad Day become Illini Day and spread all over campus?”

Juniors in Business, Jeff Teare and Stacy Zettinger, helped at their business fraternity’s tablec.

“It’s easy to motivate people about something you’re passionate about,” Teare said.

Zettinger said the day was excellent.

“Our table is in a great location and we’ve gone through all of our fliers,” Zettinger said.

Tiffany O’Neill, junior in LAS, stood outside her synchronized swimming team’s table for two hours.

“We have pages and pages of people who signed up,” O’Neill said. “I can’t think of a better way to get this much interest in our club.”

Four freshmen sat in one of the few open grassy areas on the Quad as they took a quick break from browsing the 600 RSO tables.

“Quad Day is terrific,” said Ryan Nevell, freshman in ACES. “First we just wandered around, and next I am going to go back and look for some specific ones.”

Chauncey Watson, freshman in ACES, said he had trouble seeing all the stands because of the crowds.

“It’s really wild here, you could spend all day here,” Watson said.

However, Moore thought Quad Day went well.

“There is just so much mystique and aura to the Quad,” Moore said. “It’s such a big tradition,” Moore said.