Puja Thapa
Administrative Executive Editor
There are over 75 clubs at Keene State College (KSC) providing more than 75 ways to get involved on campus. Social Activities Council (SAC) is one of the biggest clubs. Coordinator of Student Activities and Organizations and Direct Advisor of SAC Britany Gallagher said, “SAC is one of the oldest organizations on campus. SAC has been active, if you look in some of the earlier Kronicle (yearbook of KSC) editions in the college archives, there is some kind of group very similar to SAC that’s been in existence since at least the early 20s.”
The Social Activities Council puts up different events and activities on campus for students to participate. The e-board members and the general members work together to put them up. Gallagher said, “It’s really like [offering] different kinds of opportunities to students to just take a break from whatever they’re doing from any moment of time.”
“Typically the organization has anywhere from 20 to 50 general members participating in addition to their eight person executive board team,” Gallagher said. “To become a voting member (for an academic year) which allows you the opportunity to actually vote in decisions for spending money on behalf of the organization, students would have to attend at least two meetings, at least two events to help out and then to participate in at least two committee meetings…”
Rachel Zawaski, a senior at KSC and president of SAC said that it is important to get involved in order to get more from college. Zawaski said, “Because a lot of students might not know not know a whole lot of people when they first come here and that’s kind of why I joined the SAC, I knew no one,and I just kind of like showed up, and I got really involved and now here I am.”
According to Gallagher, the biggest thing the SAC is known for is the Annual Spring Concert. “They’ve been doing that for a number of years.” Gallagher said. “They have a few traditional kinds of things, they used to do fall concerts as well, a few years ago they shifted to doing Rocktoberfest in replacement of that.” Different student bands and alumni bands perform during the festival. According to Gallagher, other typical things SAC is known for are: comedy shows, hypnotists and magicians and being involved in things like Student Involvement Fair and Winter Celebration.
According to Zawaski, “We do bus trips every fall for Halloween. In the past we have done Canobie (Lake Park) and now we are gonna do Six Flags.”
Daniella Geise, a senior at KSC and general member of SAC, joined SAC since her first year of college. Geise said, “It’s been nice to see it grow and flourish.”
Geise said, “I like when we do—we set up in the student center around like Valentine’s Day where we have like Stuff-A-Plush where you get to make stuffed animals because that’s a lot of fun and that’s a really unique event that you don’t really [see] on campus anywhere.”
“If you want your voice to be heard, SAC is a great way to ease into it, especially if you don’t know where you are interested in because we have so many events that SAC puts on, it’s really easy to find something that you are interested in,” said Giese. “ It is a great way to feel like you’re making a lot of connections on campus because we reach out to so many different campus partners and we cover all the bases.”
Zawaski welcomed all the KSC students and said, “All events are open and free to all students, everyone’s more than welcome to our meetings. We meet every Thursday at 6 pm at Madison Street Lounge… It’s just a whole lot of fun, we love everyone that comes, everyone is super close and are friends with everyone.”
Puja Thapa can be contacted at Pthapa@kscequinox.com
