Baker University Center tabling serves as a hub for complimentary treats—sunglasses, stress balls and water bottles for a number of students.
Student organizations are offered complimentary spots on Baker’s first floor and outside the fourth floor through the Division of Student Affairs’ Event Services, which uses a portion of the university’s general fee fund—money OU students provide.
External organizations must pay $100 to reserve the space during the business day.
Event Services received $3,500 for the 2013-14 Fall Semester from non-university organizations as of press time, said Dustin Kilgour, executive director of Event Services.
“If you’re not a registered student organization then what that’s saying is you haven’t contributed to general fee, basically,” said Jesse Neader,
student organization coordinator for the Campus Involvement Center
.
Despite the fees associated with the space, some external organizations, such as Microsoft Windows, see it is an ideal opportunity to reach out to students.
“It’s a good spot. It’s indoors. People are coming in. People have downtime to kill since it’s a student center, so the thought is if someone is passing through and this would interest them, they would stop to check it out,” said Beau Patterson, a Windows representative.
Popcorn and cotton-candy machines are available for use, with most supplies—excluding ice for the snow cone machine—provided by The Residents’ Action Council, said John England, vice president of student services for tRAC.
“Without the charge, obviously the students are more likely to want to use the equipment,” England said.
The International Student Union also uses the space to talk to students and advertise events the organization is hosting, such as its International Dinner.
“(Tabling helps) getting in touch with people on a personal basis because most of them wouldn’t like to come to the office so they don’t know where the office is … so it’s better (that) we approach the people and find them at their convenience,” said Kombe Kapatamoyo, a first-year graduate student studying public health and secretary for the International Student Union.
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