{"id":3975,"date":"2021-08-31T14:11:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T18:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2021-11-16T14:59:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T19:59:36","slug":"hunter-kicks-off-fall-semester-with-club-fair-carnival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2021\/08\/hunter-kicks-off-fall-semester-with-club-fair-carnival\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Kicks Off Fall Semester with Club Fair, Carnival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hunter College celebrated its return to in-person classes with the annual club fair and carnival on 69th Street. Despite the 90 degree heat, students lined up, wrapping around Thomas Hunter Hall anxiously waiting to see the clubs, get something to eat, and hopefully snag any free items being handed out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Undergraduate Student Government gave out sticky note pads and purple totes, while the Division of Student Affairs handed out blue and pink insulated grocery bags, phone sanitizers and anti-bacterial wipes–additional reminders of the looming pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least 1,800 students participated in the event throughout the day, according to the student affairs office. Only vaccinated students were allowed to enter and with a maximum of 500 students at a time. Students had to prove their vaccination status before entering the carnival by tapping their\u00a0 IDs, as they do to enter the building. Smith oversaw the process to make sure it went smoothly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just needed to make sure that only vaccinated people could get in here, that’s the most important thing, and we were able to do it,\u201d said Director of Student Affairs, Miesha Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n

This level of COVID-19 safety measures helped ease some students’ nerves. \u201cI do like that they are requiring vaccines and tests for students, it makes me feel more comfortable here,\u201d said Julianna Najarro, a computer science and economics major.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the senior had some mixed feelings about being back on campus. \u201cI am really excited to see my friends and learning is easier in person,\u201d said Najarro. \u201cBut I am concerned that people aren’t going to take the proper precautions,\u201d such as social distancing and consistently wearing masks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a common feeling among students. Freshman Melanie Magdaleno had some reservations about being back on campus. \u201cI\u2019ve been used to distancing myself a lot being online. I’m happy to be back, but it still feels a bit odd with COVID\u00a0 kind of increasing a little bit,\u201d said Magdaleno. \u201cI\u2019m not sure how it’s going to end up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Others, like sophomore Hans Chaudry, was very happy to be back on campus. \u201cEveryone seems to be following the rules,\u201d said Chaudry. \u201cI just wanted to get involved and meet new people. It\u2019s been hard to do that when we were online.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fair provided opportunities for students to catch up. A few students shouted out names of friends, ran towards each other and then hugged. Fifty clubs were represented along the length of the North Building between Park and Lexington Avenue, including the Vietnamese Student Alliance, the Pre-Veterinary club, Hunter Hillel, the Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College and She\u2019s the First.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new semester brings hope for in-person events for club members, for the first time in 19 months.\u00a0 \u201cIt was pretty difficult, not a lot of people interacted,\u201d said Najarro, a member of the Queer Student Union, about the virtual club events.\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

However, being back in person had its own challenges. \u201cI’m excited to see all the new faces, but I’m also really hot,\u201d said Najarro, who was working at the QSU\u2019s booth, as the temperature read 92 degrees with high humidity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students were required to wear their masks, and almost all of the students complied with this policy. \u201cWhoever I’ve been telling to put their mask up has been listening to me and everyone is working with coordinance,\u201d said Ariana Ahmed, a junior senator for USG..<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this is so great,\u201d said Ahmed. especially that we are the only CUNY hosting an event this big and this early on in the semester.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Students rejoiced during this small return to normalcy by signing up for clubs, getting airbrushed T-shirts and reconnecting with classmates that they have not seen since March 2020. As the event winded down, it began to lightly rain and Rhianna\u2019s \u201cWork\u201d was blasting down the block loudly announcing the comeback of Hunter College and its students to the Upper East Side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student Life welcomed back students with its annual street festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":3979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324],"tags":[457,456,458,459],"class_list":["post-3975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life","tag-carnival","tag-club-fair","tag-in-person-learning","tag-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3975"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3983,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions\/3983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}