“Rockin’ with Mustang Corral” offered the fall incoming students the opportunity to reunite Wednesday evening at The Varsity.
Although the number of people attending was fewer than expected, Missy Bryant, Director of Student Programs, believes the Encore program still accomplished it’s goal for engaging students in their new campus.
Encore, the program that held the event, keeps freshmen involved after Mustang Corral, by creating events for them throughout the year. This week’s disco party was one event out of many on this year’s schedule.
Tracy Diers, a freshman who enjoyed Mustang Corral, did not attend the reunion.
“I had other things to do that were more important,” she said. Diers also said she would have been more likely to go “if [she] knew [her] friends were going to go.”
Past Corral director, Nikki Cloer, believes that Encore may achieve a higher turnout of students if they advertise in methods other than E-mail.
“No one really pays attention to the E-mails,” she said.
Rachel McCants, a junior who transferred to SMU and attended Mustang Corral this past fall, said she “did have fun meeting new people” at Corral. This is why she attends events such as “Rockin’ with Mustang Corral.”
However, she was not surprised that there were so few people Wednesday evening. “There are a lot of different events going on tonight,” she said to a fellow student who attended.
While some events attract a high attendance, others result in fewer students. Particular events are created for students to simply obtain information they may need. In this situation, the number of students there may be less, but the program is still succeeding. Bryant says the program succeeds in that “the people who want the information can come and get it” from the different events they hold.
With “a lot more people going [to Mustang Corral] these days,” the events throughout the year have been more successful than in the past, according to Bryant. So far this year, the Encore series has included events such as a comedy concert, a self-defense class and different academic advising sessions at the A-LEC .
These events resulted in a better turnout than the one held this past Wednesday. The classes, such as learning self-defense, tend to attract more attention from students than a disco party.
Bryant says the “themed months” that Encore has get the students more excited about the events. For example, staying healthy and stress-free for finals is the theme for the upcoming month of December.
Encore also teams with different organizations throughout the year, such as SAMSA, to create different offerings for the students. In addition to holding functions in places such as The Varsity, Encore has held events in McElvaney, to make them more easily accessible.
Whether or not the number of students who attend is impressive, the coordinators of Encore are committed to the program’s design to keep incoming students’ spirits high.
For more information on Encore’s schedule of events, visit www.smu.edu/newstudent.
