Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan Orientation Station on Impact 89 f n, the podcast by students or students. Now this week's episode.
Eva Ignash:Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our podcast, the Spartan orientation station. As you start to arrive to MSU, you may be wondering, how can I get involved on campus outside of my classes? Today, we will answer the question and more as we discuss getting involved on campus through organizations, clubs, and more. The office of Spartan experiences, the campus department that works with registered student organizations and student involvement on campus is here to talk with us about how new students can get involved on campus.
Eva Ignash:My name is Eva Ignash. I'm going to be a rising senior this year majoring in international relations and political science. I am involved with Pan Hellenic Sororities, and I'm in also involved with a professional pre law fraternity, and I have served on executive boards for both of those.
Andre Edmond:Hello. My name is Andre. I'm a rising sophomore. I am a computer science major with a minor in history, and I'm currently involved with the run club at MSU.
Sav Hamed:And my name is Sav. I actually just graduated this spring.
Eva Ignash:I majored in genetics and genomics, and I was involved with Impact 89 FM, the radio station on campus. I was the ex programming assistant, but there's lots of opportunities here at the station. Okay. So joining us today is Lance Sharp from the office of Spartan Experiences. Lance is the assistant director for registered student organizations and late night programming.
Eva Ignash:Thank you for joining us today, Lance. Can you just begin by introducing yourself and your role at MSU?
Lance Sharpe:Sure. Thank you all so much for having me, first of all. So as I said, my name is Lance Sharp. I oversee all of our registered suit organizations here in Michigan State. So here at Michigan State, we are lucky enough to have about 1200 different student organizations that our students can be a part of.
Lance Sharpe:And so that's where we get involved. And so we help with making sure our student organizations are either, 1, being successful, finding new members, being able to do events and coordinate all those things across campus, to even find our helping our students find that new home. Maybe we don't have an organization that fits what you need. We'll help you start one as well.
Andre Edmond:So, Lance, can you tell me a bit more about what an RSO is and just define it and the different kinds of RSOs that there are on campus?
Lance Sharpe:Sure. So as I said, we have about 1200 of them. So they're an RSO is a registered student organization, which basically means that they're a student organization that we know about. We wanna register you so that way we can help you book classrooms on campus to have your meetings, help you with financial pieces. We have great partnerships with several area businesses, and so they want to help our student organizations prosper.
Lance Sharpe:You know, we have organizations coming from anywhere and everywhere underneath the sun, whether it's academic folks focused, arts focused, diversity and inclusion, honorary. When when you think of, like, honors college, they have a ton of organizations. When you think of military, we have an air force ROTC and and a army ROTC programs that are part of us. We can even have health and wellness. We have about 20 different categories all of our artists fall under.
Lance Sharpe:So like I said, if there's not one on the campus that you don't see that you'd be wanna be part of, we'll help you form a new one.
Sav Hamed:Awesome. So we've talked a lot about how there are all these different types of RSOs around campus. Where would I find information about joining those RSOs or what types of RSOs there are?
Lance Sharpe:One of the first steps we have is involve at state. So it's involved atmsu.edu. But one of the things we want you to do is go in there and learn how to use it. You can find organizations that are based on categories, based on interest. We have all 1200 listed out so you can kind of search through those.
Lance Sharpe:One of the other biggest ways is our participation, which I know when we talk about a little bit later, and our spring participation, which is our smaller version in the spring. But one of the other things is, like, our groups are constantly tabling. They're all doing different events around campus. Any event that's hosted on our campus is also our Involve Us state. So we have a running list of events that are constantly happening.
Lance Sharpe:We do our best to make sure that you can kind of narrow down what you're looking for, what you're involved with, and getting involved with those and find out which ones you have time for. Are those going to fit into your schedule?
Eva Ignash:Okay. So you kind of talked about that there are a ton of different types of RSOs out there. But can you just go a little bit more in-depth about the different kind of RSOs?
Lance Sharpe:Yeah. So we have not only like I said, 20 different organizational categories our groups can fall into. But another way to look at is the way they're affiliated with our university. So we have governing groups, which is our, like, our associate students from Michigan State, Council of Graduate Students, Council of Medical Students, Council of Veterinary Medical Students. Those are more of our governing groups that somehow gets funding from the university to help do programs.
Lance Sharpe:Then we have our fraternity and sorority life affiliate groups, which is made of our Panhellenic Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, and our National Panhellenic Council, MPHC. Then we also have our club sports which is kind of like our club competition teams. So we have some sports groups there, you know, maybe a club football team rather than the giant football team Michigan State has. We also have about 27 of those that go on there competing. And so we're constantly growing that list of student groups.
Lance Sharpe:And then we also have our course and cops groups, which is our our minority, our underserved populations. I'm really helping them get that that newer experience, helping our students get involved with those pieces because a lot of times they're overlooked, and we really wanna make sure that they're finding that place as well. So those are kind of our big buckets, if you will, for our student our student organizations.
Andre Edmond:Okay. Lance, can you tell me, is there a limit to the amount of RSOs I can join?
Lance Sharpe:No. But I always like to add, like, you can be involved as many clubs and organizations as you wanna be part of. But I also remind people that you did come here to get a degree. We want you to get that and achieve that too. So involvement is super important.
Lance Sharpe:It helps our students get involved in West State, Michigan State, but also you came for a degree, so let's make sure we get that progress going too. Your 1st year, you're gonna see a ton of different clubs and organizations that you will be a part of. Go out there and explore them. See what they're about. I would say our 1st year students really get to see a lot of different clubs.
Lance Sharpe:Try them out try them on. Try them for the 1st year. Your 2nd year is where you kinda step into more involvement pieces. And that way, you're by your sophomore, junior, senior year, you kind of are slowly dwindling down the club involvements to the ones that you're really passionate about, that you really wanna be involved with.
Sav Hamed:So as we're talking about, like, RSOs and we're finding, like, our passion within those RSOs, what are the benefits of being a part of those organizations?
Lance Sharpe:Yeah. There's a ton. I'd say one of the first ones is, like, you you learn more about yourself. That's one of the first things you always get to do is you find out who you're about, what you're really going to be doing. Because once you get into college, you know, you no longer have the 7 to 3, 7 to 4, 8 to 4, whatever your high school schedule was, where you're kind of, you know, the regimen you have to be in.
Lance Sharpe:When you get to college, you can kind of figure out who you are, what you want to be involved with. You gain that sense of community by being involved in student organizations because you're finding your people outside of your classroom as well. But it also helps you develop some skill sets as well. When you think about when you want to graduate, what your next steps are, our employers want to know what you did. Our grad schools wanna know what you are involved with.
Lance Sharpe:Med school is a great example, and law schools are another one is that they wanna see what makes you a well rounded person. And so being involved in campus groups, you have a skill set that others may not have, whether it's running an organization, marketing, or talking in general to different people, that skill set's really valuable, and a lot of our employers are wanting to see that more. A lot of our, student groups are also very advanced in, like, DEIB work, which is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And so a lot of our employers nowadays want to know what you've done to see that. And so when they're looking at our students, they're seeing that they're doing things that 15 years ago, they weren't involved with, that it wasn't seen as important.
Lance Sharpe:And so I think a lot of those things you get to kind of expand your resume by being involved and being able to see those things.
Eva Ignash:Okay. So how can you go about joining RSOs? I know it's a hard question because they all have kind of their different recruitment tactics, but can you give us maybe a little bit of a synopsis?
Lance Sharpe:Sure. Just show up. I'm just kidding. Some of those it is that easy. So for instance, like, university activities board is a great one.
Lance Sharpe:They have weekly meetings, and they have weekly events that you can get involved with. And so their involvement is just you show up, you can become a part of university activities board. You have formal recruiting pieces like our FSL fraternity and sorority life, which is you sign up and you help learn more and more about your organization. And then you can be invited to become a member. You have some groups that will do, reach outs, whether it's information tables, they'll, you know, take people applying to be a part of their groups involved via Involve at State, all the different ways they wanna do it.
Lance Sharpe:There is no right or wrong way to join an organization.
Andre Edmond:K. So could you tell me, is there any point in time during the school year I am not able to join an RSO, or can I join any time during the school year or the semester?
Lance Sharpe:Depends on the RSOs, basically. Some of our our groups do have it at certain time periods where they only allow new members to join in the beginning of the fall semester. Sometimes they do fall and spring. Some groups are open year round for, to be able to join. It kinda depends on that organization, that group.
Lance Sharpe:So the best way I can tell you is that to find a group, reach out to them, and see what their recruitment is like.
Sav Hamed:So let's say that I am looking for an organization to join, and I know there's a lot of them, but what if I can't find one that is really, like, what I'm looking for? Am I able to create my own RSO, and what would be the process of doing so
Narrator:if I can?
Lance Sharpe:We love it when people start new ones. One of the first things we do is look into our archives and see, have you ever had a group exist like this that you're wanting to do? The main reason we do that is just so that way, if there's already a constitution out there organization prior, we can help you take it over for lack of registrar terms. Because one of the things we need for our new RSOLEG form is about 4 people to join, an adviser, and a constitution. That's our very basic line that we need.
Lance Sharpe:We have RSO consultants my office that we really work closely with to help our groups form, because we wanna ask make sure that you're thinking about things. Because last thing we want you to do is form a group and then you form it and you have no way of knowing how to run it. So we help our help you get some guidance guidance going on. So the constitution is the big one. So this just kinda outlines what the group is about.
Lance Sharpe:What is it that you all came together to form, that mission, vision, and values kind of concept? And then breaking it down to what positions you wanna hold, what how you wanna run your operations, whether it's meetings, executive meetings only. What does it look like for you? And I think the other big one is just kind of think about, like, how do you replace yourself in the future? That future planning piece.
Lance Sharpe:So if you're have a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, how do you elect those groups next year?
Sav Hamed:Right. And you said, adviser. What do you mean by adviser? Sorry about that.
Lance Sharpe:Oh, yeah. So we every one of our organizations has a staff or faculty member who's an adviser. If your group is only for undergraduates, we can also allow a grad student to be your advisor. But the advisor is there to help understand kind of the rules and policies that the university has. They're also there to help guide you, help answer questions, be that kind of coaching mentor, overall just helping you understand how to do things.
Lance Sharpe:Our advisors can be everywhere from hands on to little hands off. And so it's what the group needs, and we help our advisors learn those roles.
Eva Ignash:Yeah. So I mean, I love my advisors for my RSOs. But I know personally with my experience and my organizations, that's where I've made most of my friends. Like, I don't know what I where I'd be without my RSOs, but in your personal opinion,
Lance Sharpe:coming here. Your you're coming here, your goal is to get a degree, and if you're only going to classes, going back home and studying, your life is a little boring, not gonna lie. Some people, it works great for them, but it's also one of the things where you can kinda see what your future may hold. Like, you're able to try things out in those 4 to 6 years that you're here. Because if you're trying to figure out, like, what's a passion area that I really have?
Lance Sharpe:Doing that self reflection to figure out, like, what's important to me? A lot of our students can find those places to try those things out, like, to learn more about themselves that they may not be learning in a classroom. For instance, you know, I know you guys said, like, free laws group that you're involved with. That way you can kind of see is law school right for me. You can have those conversations.
Lance Sharpe:And so I think it's a great way to see who you are, see what you're about, build that new community here on campus, As Michigan State is a large group of students, people sometimes will come here and be like, there's so many people. I don't know where to find my my my new friend group. A lot of times your student involvement can do that for you. Your RSOs are that new home outside of your new home. So building those connections to really figure out who you wanna be.
Eva Ignash:That's really funny that you say that because I am not on the pre law track anymore
Narrator:because of this experiences that I've gained from
Eva Ignash:my pre law fraternity. Yeah. Totally on another
Narrator:note too, like, for me joining the radio
Eva Ignash:station, like, radio was something I
Sav Hamed:it's not related to my major at all. It was something completely new to me, but I was able to kinda figure out something new. I got to DJ on air, which is something I've never been able to do before, and now I know that, like, oh, that's something that, like, I could do when I go to grad school. Like, I could work at the radio station again. Like, I have that experience.
Sav Hamed:So not only are SOs available for you to figure out maybe something is wrong for you, but maybe something is right for you. Something that is completely different from what you're doing. So we talked a lot about participation, this and that. You hear it everywhere. So what is participation, and why is it arguably the best event on campus during the school year?
Narrator:I mean,
Lance Sharpe:it's the best event because I put it on. That's it. Hold on a sec. So participation is our kickoff one of our last final fall welcome events. It's the day before the 1st day of classes.
Lance Sharpe:We bring in about 500 of our student organizations to a giant field as well as bringing in Impact to do some DJing for us with some live music. So, so we bring in 500 groups, and we also bring in about 40 different departments on campus. Area of sponsors such as MSU, FCU is there hosting things for us, helping to give away stuff to our students. Eat at State is on over there, giving out food. So we'll have food options, and a lot of their vendors that they have in the Sparty's markets are also be giving away things.
Lance Sharpe:So it's a great place to get a lot of things, but it's also a great way to meet a lot of different groups. We're also dividing up into about 10 different categories throughout the campus. So we're doing, like, whether it's academic, STEM, if you're pre professional, if you're around a culture group, we're pro trying to put you all together this year. So our students can come in, find those sections they wanna be involved with, and then they can meet all the student organizations that are part of those. Because we'll have students out there talking about what their group is about.
Lance Sharpe:A lot of them will have snacks, some candies, some handouts. So make sure you're walking around, getting to know people. So we're in the midst of planning all that right now, so that's a lot of fun. It's a great party for us all. Spring dissipation, which we do in the in January, is a much smaller version.
Lance Sharpe:It's also inside because if we did this outside, no one would come. But participation would be lots of fun, and we're looking forward to having even more things out there for our students and really try to help them build those connections in whole new way.
Sav Hamed:So with this organization, does that change up how Spartan Remix is a part of, like, the fall welcome as well, or is that also still going on?
Lance Sharpe:We are still running Spartan Remix as always, because we also recognize that some of our groups some of our groups still host an involvement fair, but we also recognize that the purpose for them is a little different. And so we really want to support, like, Spartan Remix is a great one to bring up because it's for our groups that are have a target audience that they're trying to be a part of. One of the things we also really value with that group is that they're taking the time to really pull out some groups that may not get as much attention, because we are a predominantly white institution. And so, therefore, how do we make it so that that part of our campus feels that they have the attention as well and try to bring them together?
Andre Edmond:Can you tell me a bit more about what Spartan Remix is and what that entails?
Lance Sharpe:Spartan Remix is part of, is brought out of our OCAT, which is our Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions office. So they are a great partner for us to have on campus that really focuses on what our students who are not in the majority populations corps and cops groups, which is our, groups that serve our marginalized identities more than anything else. So Spartan Remix is where we kind of bring those 2 groups together as well as our Multicultural Greek Council, International Pan Hellenic Council together with other several other groups across campus that working with those student populations so that we can kinda help them focus on that. So that way they can can have a space, so they meet people that are coming from the same background that they have. Whereas participation and sprint participation are these huge groups that we can find multiple different types of groups.
Lance Sharpe:Spartan Remix allows us to kind of focus in on those populations and kind of show them those kind of ways that they can be
Eva Ignash:Thank you so much for that. But do you just have any tips for students navigating participation? Because from someone who has been to participation the past 2 years. And I went to the online participation my freshman year. It's it's a lot sometimes.
Eva Ignash:Oh, yeah. It it can get it can get overwhelming just trying to figure out where to go.
Lance Sharpe:Yeah. And that's what we're trying to do with this categorizing idea. So when you one of the things we're already seeing is our hope and goal is that we post up some new maps coming up this summer. We're in the midst of trying to plan it all out, lay it all out, so that way when you come in to start a space station, it's not just 500 club organizations. Best of luck trying to find somebody in this grid pattern we've created.
Lance Sharpe:So we're gonna try grouping things together. And so we're actually gonna be having out some volunteers that are stationed around with a list of the groups that are in their section. So that way, if you're like, I'm kind of looking for a group that's about this. So that way, they can kinda do a quick little check on things. We're also reaching out and do some things online as well.
Lance Sharpe:I was trying to do, like, a quick reference table of interest groups, what they're about, things like that.
Andre Edmond:Just one more question for me. Are there any other in person events aside from participation for students that check out the rest of the RSOs?
Lance Sharpe:Yeah. So one of the things we wanna try doing this year is having a few more different events throughout the time period. Because we realized that a lot of times, participation is at the beginning, participation is in the middle, and we have nothing else going on. So one of the things we're actually going to be working with some of our groups this year is forming smaller groups for them to kind of do things. So one of the things initiatives we're trying to look into is kind of a here's your category, here's the time period we're gonna host you over the student services building, for instance, to come talk about volunteering, community service work.
Lance Sharpe:How do we get them to kind of have kind of a smaller tabling sessions so they can share information about community service and volunteering? So we're currently working with our communication and learning office to kind of see what we can do with those things. I'd say just look around, keep your eye out out Keep your eyes out for things coming up, whether it's tabling in Wells Hall, tabling in the union. We're having events constantly throughout the year. There are groups who are looking for new members and people to be involved with, but I think we're also trying to do some more things like Spartan Remix or doing some smaller initiative programs for some of our groups that aren't able to be a part of Spartan participation or springticipation.
Eva Ignash:I would start looking through those organizations starting now because though all of them are so excited to talk to you as participation. It might help you'll just get a little bit more information if you just start looking in the summer And start that involvement in the summer earliest you can.
Sav Hamed:Yes. And one suggestion I have for, students who might want to just look through some organizations in the beginning, look at the Involve at State Instagram account because they follow all of the a lot of the clubs and you can see, you know, a lot of us are on social media, so we're active. We're posting stuff throughout the summer and you'll see that a lot of clubs are actually recruiting or just posting information. So, if you don't know where to start, always you know look at the Involve. Say Instagram go through who they're following and you can just go from there.
Sav Hamed:Search some terms or just scroll through. But on that note, we have one last question for you, Lance. What is your favorite part about working with students and being a part of the Spartan family?
Lance Sharpe:I would say one of the things to me is a Spartan is always fun to work with. I think our Spartan community is so much so different than other communities. I've had the experience to work at a few different institutions and so I can, you know, truthfully say that being part of Spartan nation is very community driven. I think when you go out and you think, you know, you can go to the airport and you're wearing something with a Spartan helmet on, people know it. And you'll hear the go green, go white.
Lance Sharpe:You'll hear people acknowledge you. You'll see things. I think one of the biggest things to me is working with our student population here is our students want to do more. They wanna achieve more. They wanna see things.
Lance Sharpe:And so that drive, that desire to thrive as well as something that's very unique. That Spartan spirit is so strong, even whenever, you know, our sports teams may not be the best, we're still thriving. Our Spartan nation is so strong and they are they wanna help each other out. They wanna form new things. I think it's also our students make it what it is.
Lance Sharpe:And so if it wasn't for those listening to really know who they are, what they wanna be about, and get involved, that's what shapes most of the other students' experiences. So seeing our students kinda be out there and being able to kinda see what they're doing, see what they're achieving, being what they're accomplishing is all amazing.
Sav Hamed:Thank you so much for your time, Lance. It was really great sitting down and chatting with you about getting involved at Michigan State University. For listeners out there, tune into our next episode where we're gonna sit down and talk with career services.
Narrator:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan Orientation Station on Impact 89 FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram atmsu_ns0.