What used to be the Club Alliance has now evolved into the Student Involvement Center. On top of joining clubs, the center could help students find jobs on campus and become more connected with the university.

According to Student Government, the Involvement Center wants to shift away from just being regulatory.

Club alliance was intended to make sure clubs were filling out their forms and keeping up with university guidelines. The Involvement Center will still do those things, but will focus more on getting students into clubs into departments and other things to keep them involved. 

“It’s much more balanced because the center will help clubs but also help the individual student,” said the Student Government President, John Aloszka.

New students will have the opportunity to take an assessment that will link them with an involvement coach and guide them towards something that UNF has to offer. 

“Incoming freshmen are going to have it much easier,” said Aloszka.  

The Involvement Center is going to partner with orientation and freshmen will be given an involvement questionnaire; an involvement coach will essentially assess the quiz and meet with that student to get them into the clubs and organizations that fit their interests. 

There will be no change to how this affects current clubs. Funding for clubs will be the same, and in fact it will be easier to access it. Part of the Involvement Center will have a club coordinator that will meet with clubs and prep them for senate meetings when requesting funds. 

Aloszka said, “I’ve been talking to different club presidents at different events and I think it’s definitely a change they like, it’s just a change that takes time.”

When asked directly what they thought of the change during the First General Body Meeting for clubs on Monday, January 27, club members had mixed responses.

“I like the effort that the Student Involvement Center  is putting in for students to get involved and even create their own clubs,” said members of the Melanin Moves club, Ronesia Williams and Nicole Marin. 

“It just looks like they changed the name and logo. I’d like to know what they did with all the money and how is it different from Club Alliance,” asked Astronomy club member, Andre Sierra.

“I just kind of want to see where the $130,000 went,” said Ben Hope of Bridge Campus Ministry club.

The President of Bridge Campus Ministry, Anna Spiezio, shared similar views. “I want to see how it goes in terms of if this decision is fiscally responsible or not. I won’t know until we see what programs and what things they decide to do.”

Student Government invested $130,000 into the Student Involvement Center.

Coming soon, there will also be an Involvement lounge, and some office construction is to be expected. The Student Involvement Center is located at East 1101 on the first floor of the Student Union and is currently open. 

“Once everything is in  place, it will be extremely beneficial to clubs. The Student Involvement Center will be the hub for involvement,” Aloszka promised.

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