Over the past year, the AMS has prepared for the return of in-person operations and what that means for student life.
Significantly reduced COVID-19 restrictions allowed Orientation Week—including events like ASUS Queen’s in the Park, Tricolour Open House, and the ASUS Sidewalk Sale—to make a full, in-person comeback after three years.
These events took place during the first two weeks of September and invited student-run clubs to market themselves to first-year students.
Robert Hughes, ArtSci ’23, took over as Commissioner of Clubs for the AMS this May and sat down with The Journal to discuss what the return to campus has meant for his job.
“It’s been a lot of figuring out how things used to be done. We’ve not been in-person in a full capacity in a long time.”
The AMS file storage policy states that everything is kept for three years, but anything further back than that is only kept if deemed an important record. According to Hughes, this policy resulted in the Orientation team planning events as if they’ve never been done before.
“It’s been a challenge, but also an exciting opportunity.”
JDUC renovations have caused also hiccups in resuming operations, specifically because of the changes to the amount of bookable space.
“[The Club’s Commission] spent so much time [at the JDUC], so we’re settling into a new office, and the clubs that operated [from the JDUC] currently don’t have a space,” Hughes said.
The Tricolour Open House was put on by the Club’s Commission, which allowed Hughes to prioritize accessibility for clubs to participate by making it free, above all else.
“The cost that comes with making it free of charge is that some groups were disappointed having to share tables with others,” Hughes said. “I just felt it was important that every club get the opportunity to be in an open forum like that in front of the students.”
Other Orientation events, like ASUS-run Queen’s in the Park and Sidewalk Sale, had fees to participate.
Tags
AMS, AMS clubs, Covid-19, orientation
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