Brandon University President Dr. Deborah Poff, and BUSU President Carissa Taylor take part in karaoke at SUDS during Snowientation. (Jenna Clinton / BUSU)

At the beginning of each school year, BUSU and BU Student Services team up to put on a number of orientation events. This year, BUSU wanted to have a second-term orientation as well as our regular first-term orientation. We held events for two weeks (January 7th-January 18th) and called it “Snowientation.” Our hope for Snowientation was that we would be able to connect with students who were starting in January, as well as giving returning students a little bit of a pick-me-up before school got too busy.

Some of our more popular events were free pizza, Trivia Night, free burgers, The Young Pixels social, and karaoke. It was really exciting for us to see so many students at these events, because one of our main goals for the year was to give back to our members as much as we could. It also gave us, the BUSU executive and council, the ability to talk to students and be as approachable as possible.

One particular event that proved to be quite successful was karaoke at SUDS. Not only did we have many students in attendance, but we also had several BU administrators make a musical appearance, including BU President Dr. Deborah Poff, Dr. Dean Care, Dave Rowland, and Glenn Kirby. SUDS bar supervisor, Karla Voth, said that it was the “second most successful night that SUDS has had since [she’s] been there.” Events such as these that reveal what a special environment we have here at BU. Students, administration, and faculty can get together and sing karaoke, compete in Trivia Night, and really get to know each other on a personal level.

On behalf of BUSU I would like to thank all of the people who made Snowientation such a success: Karla and her team at SUDS, all the BUSU Commissioners, Ashley Andrews and the BUSU office staff, Look Music, The Young Pixels, and of course all of the students who attended.

For the last three months of our term, the BUSU Council would really love to host more activities for students. We want students to know how essential they are to the university and to the union. If you have any ideas for events that you would like to see happen before the end of the year, please email me at vpe@busu.ca or stop by the BUSU office any Wednesday morning between 8:30 am and 9:30 am.

Republished from The Quill print edition, Volume 103, Issue 19, January 29, 2013.