Students crowded around tables and scurried down narrow rows in the University and Grand Ballrooms in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Wednesday during this year’s Pantherpalooza.

Students navigated the different tables featuring various registered student organizations from the Harry Potter Club to the English club.

They accepted free candy and other trinkets from members of the different RSOs in exchange for their potential participation in the club.

Some students, after visiting tables they might be interested in, began to decide whether they would join. 

Students like Dorothy Wrausmann, a freshman studio art major, who said she heard about the annual event through the PantherLife app and also from different informational things posted around campus.

“I’m probably going to join some of them,” Wrausmann said. “I’m going to see how they work in my schedule and then figure it out from then, but there is a lot of things that I’m interested in.” 

Mya Harvison, a freshman digital media major, said Pantherpalooza helped find RSOs she would have fun with.

Not all students came to Pantherpalooza just to join clubs and organizations though. Students such as Alyssa Bettenhausen, a freshman biological sciences major, said she attended for her foundations class.

“But, I also wanted to see what the school had to offer,” Bettenhausen said.

Other students not only wanted to join the different organizations, but have even thought of making their own club. 

Roberto Rodriguez Jr., a junior computer information technology major, said he thought about starting a computer security club called the CCDC.

“I need the teachers and stuff to (found) it because it’s a competition (based) also,” he said. Some students said they have fears about participating in clubs and organizations.

“Time is always my greatest fear because I don’t know if I’m going to be late for something,” said Samantha Hurb, a freshman and fashion design major“I don’t know if something is going to be penalized if I’m going to be late, like my academics or something, so that’s what my worst fear is.” 

However, Dexter Harbison, a junior geography major, said Pantherpalooza got her to join organizations.

“It got me wanting to be more involved on campus.”

Karena Ozier can be reached at 581-2812 or kmozier@eiu.edu.