Unofficial Orientation 2024 - Student Groups

This is our annual student activities fair, where you can schmooze, or more likely, be schmoozed, to your heart’s content

This is part of our 2024 Unofficial Orientation Series. A quick reminder that you can check out the welcome post here and past years’ series here.

By the time classes start, you’ll likely be successfully moved into your dorm, blissfully free from your parents, and finally finding the time to figure your shit out. Soon, you’ll realize that you have a little too much time on your hands — and you might want to fill that time with Organized Social Activities.

Thankfully for you, there are about 300 student groups at Wesleyan, so you have many, many options. Joining student groups is one of the best way to meet people outside of your dorm and in different class years. You could find best friends! Mentors! Something new about yourself! It’s all up to you.

As your Orientation Leaders, advisers, and basically everyone else including me will tell you — stick to the Rule of Seven. Each class you take, group you join, job you have, and any other thing you might do counts as one commitment, and you should try to have only seven full-time commitments per semester. With a standard four-course load, that leaves three spots for you to fill with whatever the hell else you want. That’s what this post is for.

Student Group Directory

All student groups that are funded and sanctioned by the Wesleyan Student Assembly are managed and organized on Wesnest, whose picture is above. You may be wondering: what the hell is Absent Toast (it’s our fabulous Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadow Cast–v sexy, v fun)? You can find out by using your Wesleyan login to browse all of the groups that are active on campus. This centralized system will help you find what you’re looking for, even if you’re not sure what that is yet.

Student Activities Fair: Friday, September 13th, 2024 (3:30pm-5:30pm) on Huss Lawn and Foss Hill. Be there or be square! (But actually, please don't miss it or else you will be struggling to join clubs later and regretting that you skipped it)

The WSA holds a Student Activities Fair every year so that you can browse for your future all-consuming time commitment in person. You can talk to a real human if you have questions about the group, are trying to decide which dance group to join, or just want a bunch of free candy.

As a past Wesleying editor wrote however many years ago that still rings true:

Be careful though. I’m sure you’re excited to check out all that Wesleyan has to offer when it comes to student groups, and these student group leaders will be surely armed with candy or cookies, all in an effort to get you to simply sign up for their email listservs. Do this with caution. If you don’t see yourself joining the group at all or even participating in the group long-term, it’s best to avoid giving them your email and signing up. My email account still cries from freely signing up for too many things—they’ll never take you off the listserv, no matter how you beg.

It’s true. You’ll probably put your email on ten different sheets of paper. You’ll emerge with pockets full of chocolate and emails out the wazoo. I would advise doing your research before you go to the fair so that you can seek out the tables of the groups you already know you’re interested in first.

Create Your Own

Copied and pasted from an old post because it is the same and very straight-forward:

It’s surprisingly easy to create your own student group. Student group registration is handled by the WSA, and recognition comes from CoCo, or the Community Committee. By registering with CoCo, you get access to the student activities fund handled by the SBC, or Student Budget Committee, and the Student Involvement (OSI) office, which comes in handy when you’re planning events or other group activities.

Funds! Organization! Camaraderie!

And hey — there’s a lot of pressure at Wesleyan to ~do it all,~ but stick to your gut, heed the Rule of Seven, and keep this semester comfortable. There’s always spring semester (and the next three years) to make all the mistakes and try new things. You could gleefully ignore the Rule and take five classes and join four clubs because they’re all so cool, but consider this: SLEEP. Sleep is a wonderful thing, and you won’t get nearly enough of it. Balancing fun and work and school is already a tough adjustment, don’t make it too hard on yourself by signing up for every single group at the student activity fair. That will almost certainly end with you crying on the first floor of Usdan by October. (And listen, it is okay to cry in Usdan. It seems like everyone is doing it.) Join a couple clubs and have fun, but don’t be afraid to take this semester/year to get your bearings first. The camaraderie will always be there for you.

As a final Wesleying note, if you'd like to join our own little humble club, email us at wesleyingblog@gmail.com or fill out this form (coming soon!)