Unity in Involvement

Like many UW-P Students, I have come to love and look forward to the Involvement Fair, which is held once at the beginning of both fall and spring semester. It is a great opportunity for new students to meet other involved students, and learn about prospective organizations, clubs, sororities/fraternities, volunteer events, and other ways to become engaged students on campus.

But it is also a time for those current students to reunite with friends and colleagues of fellow UW-P organizations. Throughout the year we become busy with school and work schedules, and forget to zoom from our general focus to appreciate the diverse and fierce work being accomplished by our comrades.

The Involvement Fair is one event where not only a bunch, but nearly every student org can be found mixing and mingling in a shared space. It is one day where we all coordinate our schedules and come together to celebrate campus involvement. It’s not like the Student Leader Awards Dinner; it’s different. Our celebration on this day is not in retrospect of our accomplishments; it is a communal gathering of pride in our work.

We laboriously hand out informational packets, deliver pontifications of the purpose of our representational entities to new or unaware students, eat free cupcakes with advertisements drawn on with frosting, and take turns leaving our post to make the rounds. That’s my favorite part!

Every fair has a different theme, (this year was Pirates), so every year organizations come up with new and creative (often humorous) poster board displays for their org. People wear costumes, play music, and did I mention the free food and candy? It’s a giant party with one purpose in mind: strengthening the community of UW-Parkside through student participation and involvement.

I truly felt the P-Side unity as I watched my sorority sisters join other Greeks in the Unity Stroll. So many people of different cultures, ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, classes, majors, (etc!) coming together as brothers and sisters. It was a really neat day, and I think it got everyone excited for the new school year.

This year’s theme: True Unity!

Fellow Parksidians

Aloha Parksidians!

I am still working to perfect the layout design of this page, and there are a few more elements I’d like to ad in and tweak up a bit. Nevertheless, I decided I would begin with a welcome.


Two years ago, a friend approached me, and in his greeting referred to me as his “fellow Parksidian.” I have always found this term intriguing, as it seems to unify not only our campus, but the surrounding communities as well.


Instead of viewing ourselves as Americans or international, flat-landers or cheeseheads, Milwaukians, Kenoshans, or even Racillans, commuters or residents, faculty or students, enrolled or community members, now we can unite under one identity.


Whether you attend UW-Parkside, or whether you just come to watch the soccer team, we are all Parksidians.


So, stay tuned and keep in touch. There’s a lot more to come!


Aloha!