Payton Mitchell
Staff Writer
Idaho State University puts on two events every year targeted at engaging the students and the community around the university, both of which fall under the title of CommUniversity.
The two sides of the event are represented by Welcome Back Orange and Black: an opportunity for returning or newly arrived students, as well as any interested faculty, to investigate the many student organizations available to them at the onset of the fall semester, and Celebrate Idaho State: an opportunity for the community to take on the role of facilitator and to engage the student body with what they have to offer.
Businesses around Pocatello purchase booth space at the event, in which they pay a fee that funds the committee. The business booths allow for out-of-town or out-of-state students to learn what Pocatello has to offer and also allows for citizens of Pocatello to get involved.
As of the spring of 2016, Celebrate Idaho State will be changed. A survey held by CommUniversity resulted in students and faculty finding the event to be the same every year and they were eager to make changes.
Therefore, coming up in the spring of 2016, Celebrate Idaho State will go from incorporating all colleges in one fair to one college per year. CommUniversity will also establish a theme each year so that every college on campus can get prominent focus from the students.
Celebrate Idaho State will be held on Feb. 10, 2016 in the Pond Student Union Building from 4 to 7 p.m. The theme for 2016 will be directed to the athletic department. Booths and games will be set up to show the event is intended to be a family fun day for students and their families.
Student athletes will be attending and will be taking pictures and signing autographs. The Idaho State dancers, cheerleaders, pep band and Benny the Bengal will be present to entertain the patrons. There will also be a “Speaker’s Theatre,” an educational talk about the athletic department and what it has to offer at Idaho State University.
In 2017, Celebrate Idaho State’s theme is geared towards the medical departments on campus. In 2018, the theme will pertain to the performing arts and in 2019, the science and engineering departments will be the prominent themes for the fair.
“The organization itself started about six years ago in 2009 by Valerie Watkins and Jim Johnston with the intent to make Pocatello more of a college town,” said Allyson Johnson, special events coordinator and one of the new leaders of CommUniversity.
When the duo stepped down from their position, the committee was taken over by Valerie Davis, Allyson Johnson and Stephanie Palagi, the director of the Welcome Back Orange and Black street fair in Old Town Pocatello.
CommUniversity advertises for these events in a number of different ways.
According to Johnson, the Idaho State Journal, the radio stations KPVI, and Paul Anderson, host of the radio station KZBQ Channel 93.7 FM, are major sponsors and advertisers for the committee. On top of this, student members of the committee use campus promotion such as hanging posters and posting ads on the university’s website.
Along with fees for booth space at both events hosted by CommUniversity, the committee is also funded by donations,.
Welcome Back Orange and Black is where the bulk of the committee’s funding comes from. This funding is how CommUniversity can offer students three $1,000 scholarships per year.
For years, Celebrate Idaho State has been hosted in the ballroom of the Student Union Building on campus purveying free food and booths from the different colleges around campus, which allows for students to get an opportunity to check out what the university has to offer in case students are thinking of changing their major or minor.
