Student Organization Outreach and Involvement Experience (SOOIE) hosted the second annual Registered Student Organization (RSO) Summit Wednesday in Giffels Auditorium.
SOOIE is an organization unique to the UofA with a primary goal of helping RSOs thrive and reach their utmost potential, according to the university’s website.
Outreach and involvement are two aspects that the organization highlights. SOOIE members practice outreach by facilitating team builders, talking with the RSO, recruiting new members and leading workshops or retreats to help RSO officers prepare their organization for success.
Karina Wickham, SOOIE president and UA political science and communication major, said being accessible to RSO officers is pivotal because she develops connections with them, making them more likely to ask questions to ensure their organization’s success.
“I am very passionate about involvement,” Wickham said, “and I’ve also had some experience working with Student Involvement and Leadership. So just having exposure to some of those questions and resources and different answers for students really just drove me to want to be able to give (answers to students) year-round, and not just in my job capacity.”
Considering the university’s enrollment of more than 30,000 students, members of the organization aim to make the campus feel smaller by speaking with students to match them with an RSO that is suitable for their interests.
To provide RSO officers with as much information as possible at the summit, SOOIE invited speakers from Student Involvement and Leadership, the Office of Financial Affairs (OFA) and Arkansas Union Event Services. Each speaker explained the purpose of the branch in which they work and their role in supporting RSOs.
Before the start of the summit, Charles Smith, a UA junior exercise science major, said he decided to attend the event because he is the president of Hogs for Health, an RSO that serves as a liaison between students and administrators of the University Health Center, according to the organization’s HogSync. It is Smith’s first year on the organization’s executive board, and he said he was curious to learn more information.
“I’d like to have a better understanding of what the process looks like for funding,” Smith said. “As of right now, there are a lot of different forms and stuff, and it’s hard to figure out where to go for them.”
Smith said that attending the event was important to him because it was his chance to meet the people who overlook RSOs, allowing him to put faces to the names of the people he has been communicating with regarding his organization.
Janani Saravanan, a UA sophomore public health major and SOOIE director of leadership, said she hopes attendees leave the event feeling more confident in asking SOOIE members for assistance concerning their needs for their organizations.
“I hope that this event is helpful in getting information all in one place instead of having to go look for it on your own,” Saravanan said, “because I know that’s really hard whenever you’re starting an RSO, even when you’re in an RSO as well, but mostly for starting an RSO.”
Saravanan said that aside from the summit, SOOIE hosts involvement fairs three times per semester, which are events where six to 10 RSOs set up tables and promote their organization to students in search of involvement. The organization facilitates Leadership Development Luncheons, SOOIE Skill Shops, Of the Month Awards and End of the Year Student Involvement Awards Banquet, according to the UA website.
SOOIE is hosting two more events to wrap up September, according to the organization’s HogSync.
The September Involvement Fair, Getting to Know Your RSOs, will take place Thursday from 12-2 p.m. in Giffels Auditorium. Attendees can receive food, drinks and SOOIE merchandise.
Crash Course in OFA Funding will occur on Monday, Sept. 30 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Arkansas Union room 511. This event will give RSO officers a better understanding of the funding process, a short list of funding application rules, information on how OFA rules have changed since the 2023-24 year and tips on how to submit a clear budget.
link