North Texas Daily

Anna Orr | Staff Writer

For two hours Wednesday, the Mean Green Spring Fling welcomed faces old and new to experience a part of every student organization on the UNT campus.

Students were provided the opportunity to get involved on campus and search through the variety of clubs UNT offers on campus, such as Greek life, recreational sports and the Student Government Association. 

“It’s an involvement fair with 150 organizations and departments,” coordinator of student organizations Kally Jorgensen said. “We had Campus Life ambassadors roaming around the event to help students find the organizations they are looking for.”

Jorgensen added that a lot of the organizations that participated in the annual event were there to recruit new members and find students to attend their meetings. She said there’s a big difference between the fling that happens in the fall and the one in the spring, namely that the one in the fall is much smaller.

But organizations managed to turn out and bring in new members. Alexis Smith and Lola George act as co-presidents for the women’s club Play Like A Girl, a health and fitness organization on campus with a woman’s touch.  

“We do everything that girls like to do from working out, to facials, spa nights, movie nights and just having fun on campus and making a community for girls to come together and be themselves,” Smith and George said. “We’ll be having fun events like yoga, rock climbing and a Beyonce boot camp.”

While some clubs focus on lifestyle and fun, others are much more political.

Cathryn Jimenez, a member of Mueve, a club with the mission of demonstrating equality and respect within the Chicano and Latino community, commented on the concept of UNT becoming a sanctuary school.

“Everybody deserves to have an education regardless of immigration status,” Jimenez said. “I think that the sanctuary UNT movement is a really great thing. I think it’s really ironic that Neal Smatresk has yet to take a stance on whether or not UNT should be a sanctuary campus. He needs to protect his students. His responsibility is to students, not to Greg Abbott.”

OrgSync is a website that allows UNT’s clubs and organizations to post about their club meetings and give descriptions about their club’s goals abd upcoming events. According to OrgSync, over 15,000 students on campus participate in the clubs UNT has to offer. There are 111 academic and professional clubs, 32 club sports, 26 creative and performing arts organizations, 32 cultural and international, 14 graduate student clubs, 44 Greek life, 24 honorary, 38 religious and spiritual, 3 residence hall, 20 service, 15 social/political awareness, 43 special interest, 6 sport recreation clubs, SGA and 7 university sponsored groups.

Vera Goltsova spoke of her involvement with the Russian Club as the elected club president.

“This will be my first semester as Russia club president,” Goltsova said. “Aliya, our Vice President is working with me towards expanding the club and keeping our agenda consistent. We plan to have our weekly conversation hours that we’ve had in the past but we would like to plan events for our members whether it be food parties or movies watching parties. We would also like to try and get in touch with other language and culture clubs.”

When asked about the recent news regarding Russia’s involvement in the US Presidential election, Goltsova responded positively.

“Although politics sometimes come up during our conversation hours, we will try to focus on the true values of Russian club such as the language and culture of Russian speaking people and Slavic lifestyle,” Goltsova said.

Click here for more information on clubs and organizations at UNT

Featured Image: Student Organization members are able to meet in room 337 at the UNT Union. UNT has a total of 425 student organizations. They are overseen by Student Activities through they OrgSync website. Jennyfer Rodriguez