Have you ever been sitting there one weekend, bored to tears, lying in your pajamas, watching reruns of “The Real World,” whining to your roommate, “There’s nothing to do on campus”? If you thought that you knew everything about student services, think again.
The Office of Student Services, room 212 of the Barone Campus Center, located across from the University Bookstore has the answers to all of your boredom prayers. Not only do they offer discounted movie tickets, New York theatre tickets, and sporting event tickets, but they can be the difference between a listless Saturday or an exciting Friday. I say they lean towards the latter.
I’ll bet that you didn’t know that the addition to Barone is 38,000 square feet or that the Barone Campus Center renovations are 68,000 square feet. Nestled safely in this concrete monolith are offices for The Manner, The Mirror, and WVOF in the media wing. There is a FUSA office for the President and Vice President, Vice President of Programming and cabinet, Vice President of the Senate and staff, and the Board of Governors.
There’s a commuter lounge, a study lounge, and four meeting rooms. There is space for twenty-four students clubs and organizations. Need I go on?
Matthew A. Dinnan, associate dean of students for university activities, is proud of his office and its immense capabilities. He gives nothing but praise to the new campus center. In his single, solitary office, anyone can buy movie tickets for $5. About one hundred are sold each week, selling out.
There you can buy tickets to the “I Love New York” Broadway ticket series or cheap seats to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks win or lose depending on the team.
“We attempt to inform the students of what’s going on. We produce the Campus Weekly so that students will be aware of campus activities and we help to supplement them with advertising,” said Dinnan.
With monetary help from FACE, Financial Assistance for Creative Events, headed by students, Dinnan and staff are able to purchase bulk tickets. Both organizations then collaborate in order to discount the cost for students, making a day or night off campus enjoyable and, well, cheap.
While Student Services by far offers such a wide array of activities for students, Dinnan says that they like to work in conjunction with other organizations on campus. For example, if you wanted to put on an event in the Quad such as May Day, you can call Student Services and they will work with you to reserve the quad and anything else that you might need to make that day a success.
So I’ll bet that you are all wondering about the Thursday night bowling, right? Well, Student Services sponsors that night too. I’ll bet the average 350 students who utilize this service are grateful. Dinnan laughs. “You wouldn’t think of the typical Fairfield University student as going bowling. But it’s by far the most popular program.”
With any luck, Student Services will only grow in the future. In fact, Dinnan is confident that Student Services will increase within the next year. With the incoming class of 2006, the students will have the advantage of the new campus center, thus being thrust into the world of Student Service activities much faster than the other classes.
“It’s different when the campus center was completed in the second semester. With the class of 2006, students will be introduced to the lobby with the various wings, and clubs, and programs. There will be that awareness of what’s available,” Dinnan said.
How do students seem to respond? Miguel Delgado, ’04, seems to think Student Activities is doing a good job.
“Theatre tickets for $25 with transportation? Movie tickets for $5? It’s definitely a deal and it gets you off campus.”
And Enrique Iturralde, ’05, thinks so too. “They do a great job. They offer students a lot of different activities.”
For more information on Student Activities, visit their office at 212 in the BCC, across from the bookstore. In addition to Associate Dean Dinnan, you’ll find Deirdre Eller, director of new student programs and Kelli Rainey, director of student activities. Here you’ll not only find the various activities on and off campus, but information on the FYE program and leadership development.
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