The Program Activities Council (PAC) Welcome Week is a staple of student life at CMU.
To kick off the Spring semester, the PAC created a list of activities for students to participate in. Junior Spanish and Social Work major Mattie Kolb is the current PAC Chair and was very excited for the week’s events.
“Welcome Week has been a tradition, in fact, for many years now. We do one in the fall, so the start of the Fall semester, and then one in the spring for the Spring semester. Really, it’s just to get students involved, and welcoming new students, and that’s why it’s helpful,” Kolb said.
Throughout the week, PAC volunteers would come and help run events. One of these students was junior Sports Management major Ted Allegra.
“I mean we’ve really gotten out there and you know, each day you see us here at the UC trying to get people to come join us or just be a part of PAC. And, you know, I think that’s enough with COVID-19 right now let’s you know try to bring a community together,” Allegra said.
Monday’s event was 2021 Goals. At this event, students could write down their plans and goals to make this new semester great. Students wrote things like “I want to learn how to communicate even better”, “I am going to Improve on eating healthy” and “I want to start working out regularly.”
Tuesday’s event was a social media challenge where students would tell PAC their best winter break story. Wednesday’s Event was Snickers and Stickers. For that PAC members handed out Snickers and stickers to students in the University Center. Thursday was a hot cocoa night. Then finally Friday was self-care packages and a movie.
The PAC’s Friday night event was probably the most anticipated of the week. Volunteers placed socially distanced chairs and self-care packages in the UC Ballroom for a screening of “We’re the Millers.”
Sophomore Elementary Education major Mira Houck and sophomore Nursing major Summer Mock heard about the event through Stall Street Journal. Houck and Mock are on CMU’s soccer team together, and with this semester being Houck’s first at CMU, the two thought Friday’s event would be a fun way to end the week.
“Honestly [it] sounded really fun, this is my first time in far away from home so I just sounded like a fun way to kind of get involved with stuff get involved with school,” Houck said.
Campus and club events are a time-honored college tradition. With Covid-19 protocol changed to hold events. The PAC found safe and socially distanced ways to continue their organization’s tradition this week. PAC volunteer Mel Hoffman remarked that planning an event during Covid-19 may be a bit time consuming and take a little more work at times. Social events like the ones the PAC holds have become an important part of student lives during Covid-19.
“Still getting to meet people, because that’s kind of how colleges work, but it’s a big part of it. Events like this definitely help with getting out there and like trying to expand your group,” Mock said.
The PAC has more events planned for the rest of the school year, ranging from a dating week for Valentine’s day to a mental health week. The activities for dating week start off with speed dating in the University Center Ballroom at 6:00 on Feb. 11.
