I’ve been thinking about an event we did during Halloween at TCNJ. The event was a scarecrow building contest where students could build a scarecrow for a monetary prize. This event had one group enter last year and no one enter this year and I literally was struggling to figure out why.
Above is the scarecrow I and my student staff built. We had a good time building it, so why wouldn’t other students care about doing something like that? We also had students that painted and carved pumpkins when we did that event; so what was different?
After pondering this for awhile, I think the problem was the policy we had for getting students involved. Students were required to come to our office and get a list of rules as well as sign up for the event the day before. I remember being in college; this was not how I planned out my time! Students whose first priority is academics and second priority is ‘being a student” do not want to plan ahead to do a scarecrow contest. However, having an event prepared and on-site (like the pumpkin carving and painting) will get students to participate if they’re intrigued and have the time in their schedules.
So, again the question is…if students are not participating in your event, is it simply because you’re discouraging your students from participating by your participation policies? Isn’t that ironic?
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