The Campus Activities Office, which sponsors approximately 120 student groups on campus, changed its name to the Center for Student Involvement as a part of Norris University Center’s summer makeover.
Other changes to the center include extra staff, updated programs and expanded services. The name change has been implemented to clarify the center’s activities.
“We’ve been having conversations this summer about services we provide,” said Helen Wood, associate director of the center. “Campus activities implies just events and speakers, and we do so much more than that. The Center for Student Involvement is more relevant to what we do.”
The old name, which had been in place since Norris opened in 1972, often caused confusion among students, faculty and community members, Wood said. She added that people commonly misinterpreted the center as the overseer of all the activities that took place on campus. As a result the center often received “odd phone calls” from people wanting to know about unaffiliated events, Wood said.
“The new name better encapsulates what we do and the programs that we offer,” Wood said. “For the most part, I think people really like it.”
In addition to acquiring a new name, the center also is sporting new programs for the upcoming school year.
NUnite, one of the new programs, is a diversity initiative that will help two independent student organizations collaborate with each other on a unique event. Wood also emphasized the center’s efforts to expand old programs within its four main departments: community service, organizational development, leadership development and programming.
Other changes to the center include the addition of at least two staff members. Suzan Akin is the new coordinator for student community services, and Sameer Paroo is the assistant director for student organizations and leadership. The center also is interviewing for a staff member to head the organizational development department.
Paroo, who joined the office in July, previously worked with two of Northwestern’s freshmen orientation programs, Project Wildcat and Catalyst. He plans to bring a new philosophy to the job after learning the ropes.
“My big thing is making things effective and looking at it from an outside perspective,” he said. “I’ve thought about new things. There are definitely opportunities to make some programs better, but I do want to first see how everything runs in my first year.”
According to Wood, although the center expects their new staff members to generate ideas for new programs, the center also will continue and improve upon existing programs.
The center will be keeping programs such as Fastbreak Friday, Winter Carnival and Sibs-N-Kids Weekend while enhancing others such as the Chicago trips.
“We’re changing things around, but we’re also trying to respond to what students want,” Wood said.
One student said that the name change is more appropriate to describe the Center’s activities.
“(The Center of Student Involvement) just sounds more participatory,” said Isabel Espaldon, a Communication freshman. “It makes it sound like more than just an office, like something you’d want to go to be more involved with.”
