Every year, Wayne State College’s Student Affairs office hosts the annual club fair for all students to sign up for clubs and learn more information on the clubs WSC offers.
Usually the club fair falls within the first two weeks of school but this year the club fair fell on September 9th, almost a month into the school year. Due to the later date of the fair, many clubs had trouble recruiting new members especially the club sports teams.
One club that struggled with recruiting was the club softball team as their first series falls on September 27th. Riley McCall, the president for the club softball team, said the delay affected their recruitment greatly.
“A major challenge was roster confirmation,” McCall said. “With the season being scheduled earlier than last year, we had to jump on recruiting new members right when school started, which was a struggle because the first month of school is always really busy.”
Women’s rugby was another club sports team that was affected by the delayed club fair.
Women’s rugby had their first match on Saturday of this past weekend. Although the women’s rugby team had enough players, they were affected in other ways.
The women’s and men’s rugby team went out around campus and did their own recruiting within the first few weeks of school. Vice captain Mary McKulsky opened up about some of those recruitment struggles.
“Honestly we were really hoping to have it the first week of school, as it usually is, so that we can get our numbers up to begin with and get all the new girls in at once,” McKulsky said. “We did just have our first game so getting girls in after that is a little bit difficult, we are obviously super grateful to get anyone that we can, but I will say that is kind of does affect us a little bit and setting us back a little bit this far into the season.”
Many club officers struggled with getting started right off the bat without being able to involve new members. Gracie Hinz, the president of WSC’s drama club, said she was frustrated that the club had to wait to begin their activities in earnest.

“It’s really frustrating, as a club leader, to feel like you can’t get started promptly,” Hinz said. “Instead, you have to wait until, like, week 4 of the semester.”
A big struggle has been scheduling events within clubs and around campus. Students learning about clubs late in the semester interferes with students’ class and commitment schedules. International club president, Nicola Joseph said that this has been one of their main struggles.
“A lot of us have less time to get the events that we want done and get people really involved, especially now that everyone’s got their schedules set,” Joseph said. “It’s difficult to insert something, especially for the people who are busy, it’s hard to insert something into their schedule so less people are willing to sign up.”
Many clubs around campus were affected by the club fair delays, but with the club fair going off without a hitch on Sept. 9, improvements in recruitment and event planning will likely get underway in the coming weeks.