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CLT Magazine | SPRING 2022
Using a G.O.A.T. Strategy to Reset Your Campus Activities Program Bill Harcleroad
~Director of Campus Activities & Leadership | SUNY ONEONTA
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UNY Oneonta’s mission is to “nurture a community where students grow intellectually, thrive socially and live purposefully.” Our vision is “to become the exemplar residential community, providing relevant educational experiences in and outside of the classroom.” I have been incredibly fortunate to have inherited and build upon a strong activities program. That, and a strong division of Student Development, not only helped fulfill those statements but, in some ways, helped form how we think of ourselves here at SUNY Oneonta. The cocurricular has always been part of the “Oneonta experience.” Our history of strong cocurricular engagement helped us to pivot to virtual and hybrid programs when the pandemic hit. We continued to see our “outside the (virtual) classroom” experience as part of what makes Oneonta stand out in the higher ed space. This manifested itself in programming from across the campus but also in significant financial and logistical support from the college itself (and, yes, I know how fortunate that makes me). Getting the word that we could return to in-person activities for Fall 2021 was certainly exciting news. It also came with apprehension that we might have lost momentum. Could we pick up where we left off? Was the magic gone?
We had several challenges: 1. Almost all of the students moving onto campus (as we only require first-year and sophomores to live on campus) have no history of attending in-person incredible events sponsored by A/C, the Activities Council. 2. Many clubs and organizations languished over the last 3 semesters so we would need to over-program to provide as robust a calendar as we have had in the past. 3. New protocols limiting space usage and types of events. 4. Overcoming anxiety about being in large(r) groups. 5. The majority of the Activities Council had never run in-person events. Using a Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.) strategy helped us to confront these challenges. Having tried and true performers meant that some of our senior student influencers (RAs, OLs) had likely seen them and could recommend them. This also assisted with event production as we had worked with these performers before, leaving little surprise. This strategy, although useful, did not apply to all events. We did not use this strategy for our large fall weekend event, a music series, and movies. Many were G.O.A.T.s. Last year’s Activities Council (A/C) was presented data on all performers they had hosted over the last five years and asked to rank them in various categories to produce a desired program.
