Last Friday, March 21, Saint Xavier University held its annual Health Fair. What struck the staff members who attended the fair most was the fact that the target demographic seemed to be the elderly and the general St. Xavier community as opposed to the student body.
Some of our staff seemed to totally understand why those who organized the fair would cater to this particular audience as opposed to catering to students.
It is no secret that student involvement is hard to come by at St. Xavier University and if the people at the Shannon Center should cater to anyone it should be the people who show up.
If that happens to be people in the community as opposed to students, then by all means serve those who are interested in listening to what you have to say.
However, it is the staff’s opinion that the Health Fair could be a great way to educate the students on their own lifestyles.
One of the key observations of one of our staff members were the booths not featured at the Health Fair – chiefly any booths considering drinking and sexual activity (two things stereotypically associated with the college lifestyle).
Though, at this point, we reach something of a roadblock.
If student turnout for events is traditionally low, why should those types of booths even be included?
Some of our staff suggested that perhaps the way to go would be more involvement on behalf of the staff or faculty.
By that what we are suggesting is that more professors should entice students to go with extra credit assignments or by actually going down to the fair with students during class time that coincides with the health fair. That is simply just one suggestion.
The Health Fair boasted a lot of things that could get people involved. (The page online lists everything from free food to face painting for the kids.)
No matter what is offered, it seems that the St. Xavier student body population will always have a hard time warming up to on campus events.
This leaves us again with the problem that we started with. How can we expect the Health Fair to cater to students when St. Xavier students are infamous for not showing up to campus events?
When phrased like that, it is hard to imagine why the people at the Shannon Center would even try to include things that students might be interested in.
True, staff involvement might be able to motivate students.
Everybody appreciates an extra credit opportunity. But, at the same time, students should want to educate themselves about healthier lifestyle choices.
To truly have any sort of impact, students should want to be educated and not simply be enticed by extra credit or the like.
How students get to that point is beyond us at the moment.
But the concept seems to apply to every event on campus.
Somehow there is a way to get students involved and, more importantly, want to get involved.
We at The Xavierite hope that perhaps someone finds the perfect way to break this trend of student disinvolvement.
The Xavierite Staff
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