The Slippery Rock University Program Board (UPB) kicked off the 2015-2016 school year with its annual welcome back event on Tuesday in the quad.
The event began at noon and featured various stations with games, crafts and activities. Both students and faculty participated in the annual event.
Freshman public health major, Kaitlynn Vaughan said she was drawn to the design-your-own-hat station as well as the adopt-a-goldfish table.
“This is really a cool, great way to meet new people.” said Vaughan. “I’m excited to have a pet goldfish for my new dorm room.”
The adopt-a-goldfish table, amongst other activities, seemed to be the most popular. At the station, students lined up and were able to pick out a tank, fill it with an assortment of pebbles of their choice and pick a goldfish to take home with them. President of UPB, Brandon Quinn said this particular welcome back event has had the biggest turn out than previous years. Quinn said the adopt-a-goldfish station helped contribute to the big turn out.
“We had an idea that they were going to be popular,” Quinn said. “We haven’t had an event like this in eight years. It was the most popular item that we had at the event.”
Quinn said the welcome back event will definitely be an annual event at the beginning of each semester.
He also said UPB holds events similar to the welcome back event around Christmastime, Valentine’s Day, and close to the end of the semester to help with the stress of finals.
Junior early childhood special education major, Lauren McNeil, who serves on the UPB committee was working the goldfish table. McNeil said UPB just wanted everyone to socialize and get to know each other a little better.
Aside from the goldfish and personalized hats, students also could make their own bamboo plant, design a personalized street sign, snack on popcorn and cotton candy and try their hand at fast-pitch.
Sophomore physics and pre-engineering major, Stephanie Stuart said she missed the event last year, but was eager to participate this time around.
“It seemed like a lot of fun last year,” Stuart said.
Stuart also said that she owns a lot of plants, so she was thrilled when she found out that UPB was holding a bamboo plant station so that she could add one to her collection.
Students filtered through the different stations until the event shut down at 2:00 p.m.
