‘Building a connection’ at AU Student Orgs

Augusta University’s Student Life and Engagement office is located in the Jaguar Student Activities Center on the Summerville Campus. (photo by Kimberlyn Ware)

By Kimberlyn Ware and Micah Webb | Staff writers

Augusta University is home to several student organizations. From the Summerville campus to the Health Sciences campus, there is a club for virtually every student, where they can find a sense of belonging as well as making their college years more fun and engaging.

“We have over 300 plus student organizations on our campus,” said Roberto Aragon, assistant director of student programs and overseer of fraternity and sorority life. “All our organizations have to go through a verification process to be established as an active student org.”

Student Organizations at AU are divided into eight categories: Academic, community service/engagement, cultural/religious, fraternity and sorority, institutional, social, university college, and university departments/office.

“Club Fest is typically what I recommend to students,” said Aragon. “It happens in the fall, and the spring, and there could be anywhere between 60 to 100 student organizations, with information like when their next meeting is going to be and when the next event is going to be.”

He continued, “In the future we plan to have a version of Club Fest on both the Summerville campus and the Health Sciences campus, so we can highlight some of our health sciences clubs.”

In addition to being on campus and seeing student organizations hosting events during the day, and going to events such as Club Fest, students can visit augusta.presence.io to check out the entire list of AU’s registered student organizations. On the site, students will be able to see information about organizations.

“I am a firm believer that students should build a home away from home and build a connection with their peers,” Aragon added. “There is a higher education theory that says that the more involved you are on campus the better your grades will be, because you are building a connection and community with your peers.”

Student Government Association and Jaguar Production Crew are two of the largest and most active student organizations in AU. Both organizations fall under the institutional category as they are funded by the school through activity fees. They contain both graduate and undergraduate sections.

“The Jaguar Production Crew does more activities, more of the big signature events. They are in charge of homecoming week, Spring Fling, Summer Send Off, and holiday send off. SGA is more of a legislative approach, but they do some programming as well on a smaller scale,” said Aragon.

SGA president and University Village resident assistant Dee Mallory plans to lead students in the right direction.

SGA President Dee Mallory. (photo courtesy of Dee Mallory)

“I believe that my purpose ultimately, in the grander scheme of things, is to help people,” Mallory said. “And I believe that being SGA president, being a resident assistant, being active and engaging on campus is one of my missions in helping.”

Mallory hopes to one day connect Augusta University and Paine Colleges SGA programs to do community service to have a more significant impact. “Through this, we could teach our members, and we can professionally develop our members into people who are willing to uplift our society,” Mallory said.

With finals coming up for students, Mallory said SGA wants to help them take their minds off exams and final projects with a build-a-critter event on Wednesday, April 26.

“These events are planned as de-stress week events so that students can have time to chill out with their friends, take their minds off of finals for a second, and then hopefully get them recharged and ready to study,” said Mallory.

The organization will also have a table at CommuniCon on Thursday, April 27 and a field day event on Friday, April 28.

Logan Moore, the coordinator for student involvement and campus activities, and the current advisor for the Jaguar Production Crew, said adding involvement can be beneficial for resumes.

“It shows that you can be involved. You can have a personal life but also do your job. It shows that you have a good work/ life balance, and I would recommend putting it on your resume especially if it impacted your life and you can speak on it positively,” said Moore.

Students can create their own student organization, with the office of Student Life & Engagement accepting packets for new organizations beginning April 27. To learn more, contact the SLE office.

This story is published in the Monday, April 24, 2023 print edition of The Bell Ringer on page 3.