Carolyn Vega
From Oct. 18 to Oct. 23, Saint Xavier University showed their appreciation towards their commuting students with Commuter Week.
Commuter Week is an annual, week-long event with numerous activities and programs for commuting students to participate in. It was funded by the Student Activity Fund, and organized by the Saint Xavier Council and Campus Life.
“The importance behind Commuter Week is to show our appreciation towards the commuters. We are aware that it is generally more difficult for commuters to attend events and get involved; however, they make up the majority of the SXU community, so we like to give back and come up with fun and helpful events that are geared towards commuters,” SXC president Mallorie Rosales said.
Many students attended the events.
For the waffle and hot cocoa bar event, “We had over 160 members of the SXU community at that event,” said Rosales.
One freshman commuter, Hollyn Fisher, attended several events.
“I chose to attend Commuters Treat, the waffle and hot cocoa bar, the scary movie night, and magician. I thought Commuters week was kind of fun because I felt like a big kid going around all the offices and actually learning about them; I had no idea what the provost was before that. The waffle and cocoa bar had this waffle on a stick and you could add chocolate or syrup for a topping, and even add granola, strawberry as an extra topping, but the best part was the self served hot cocoa. The movie was pretty scary, people were freaking out because the movie had a lot of jump scares,” said Fisher.
On Oct. 18, commuters were taken on a trip to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL to enjoy the Six Flags Fright Fest.
On Oct. 20, the event Spot the Costume had commuting students search for a member of the commuter club that was in costume and take a picture with them to submit to the Saint Xavier Council Facebook page.
The first 10 students that submitted their picture received a gas card worth $15, and the next 15 students received vouchers to the Saint Xavier diner worth $10. The remainder of the participants received prizes such as commuter shirts and mugs.
In addition to Spot the Costume on Monday, there was also a chance for commuters to pick up a commuters treat game card from Campus Life and go to various departments to receive a treat and get their game card stamped.
The departments included were the Tutoring and Learning Center, Student Affairs, Records and Advising, Bursar office, Financial Aid, Office of the Provost, and Admissions.
Whoever went to all the departments and had their card fully stamped could turn it in to Campus Life in exchange for a raffle ticket. The winner of the raffle received a parking permit or a reimbursed parking permit if they had already bought one.
On Oct. 21, there was a waffles and hot cocoa bar in the Student Lounge where commuters were able to start their Tuesday morning with a warm breakfast.
On Oct. 22, Scary Movie Madness had commuting students come back to Saint Xavier in the evening to enjoy a horror movie night with free popcorn, with the movie Sinister playing in McGuire Hall.
On Oct. 23, magician Dennis Watkins arrived at Saint Xavier University to perform magic in front of all students interested in the diner.
According to Fisher, Commuter Week was quite the experience and it was great for a student, whether or not they were a commuter, to have fun and be able to get involved in these events was a treat all on its own.
If commuters are at all interested in more events and programs centered around commuter life, Campus Life series called Food for Thought is presenting an open student panel on Oct. 29. It is called “Life as a Commuter” and it will be held in the Student Organization Center at noon.
Rosales also encourages all students, to be on the lookout for events planned for Diversity Week, as well as Multicultural Night, which is coming up soon, and to check on SXC’s OrgSync, Facebook, and their new SXC Instagram and Twitter accounts (@sxu_sxc) for future events through the fall semester.
Gisselle Lopez
News Editor
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