Bulldog Bonanza brought an opportunity for Ferris students, and local businesses, to connect with one another as well as the community last Wednesday.
While Bulldog Bonanza is a way for students to learn about the registered student organizations on campus, it is also a way for local businesses to get involved with campus. These businesses can pay for a table to help them get the word out.
Rhiannon Slentz works at Sports Clips and found the event to be a way to draw attention to her employment.
“We like to give out those coupons to give the Ferris kids a little discount,” Slentz said. “We specialize in haircuts and we give a student discount, $2 off anytime they show their Ferris ID or just tell us they’re a Ferris student. We’ll make sure they get that discount.”
While businesses had the opportunity to set up a table, they were also able to have WYBR-FM advertise for them at Bulldog Bonanza.
“We are a local radio station, so we partnered with local businesses to create the Ferris welcome bag,” Big Rapids Media general manager Jeff Scarpelli said. “We’ve done this for over 20 years. So, it’s our way of trying to introduce local businesses to the incoming student population through coupons, flyers, stuff like that which are put inside the bag that we hand out on campus.”
While businesses were present, the focus was on different groups wanting to expand their name and mission. Social work master’s student Lauren Hitt was there in hopes of getting students on board with her group, Dawgs Against Tobacco, who want to change Ferris’s policy on tobacco. The policy is currently that students may smoke or vape as long as they are of age, and 25 feet from the building.
“We’re grant funded from Truth Initiative, which is a big, big thing on anti-vaping and anti-smoking,” Hitt said. “So we got a grant last year to try to advocate for smoke and vape-free campus. We’ve had some troubles, just in general. Long story short, we weren’t able to pass the policy last year, so our grip got extended to, I believe, December-ish sometime this year and we’re still advocating to get a smoke and vape-free campus, or at least get a better tobacco policy, because currently, Ferris has one of the worst tobacco and vaping policies as a university in all of Michigan.”
There were also RSO groups there who were looking for specific students to join their group. Welding engineering junior Tori May is a part of the American Welding Society and was recruiting students who may have an interest in welding, especially if it appealed to their desired career field.
“We like to appeal to a lot of different factors, because welding does include a lot of manufacturing, materials, mechanical, all of that type of stuff,” May said. “There’s a lot of different fields that go into welding that make welding what it is. A lot of people who were involved in welding are also going to be involved in a lot of other things in their company, whether it is automation or design, inspection, that sort of thing. So for all the other majors, it could be a great tie in to find other folks, to find their job and get your foot in the door somewhere.”
Students who were unable to attend Bulldog Bonanza can find a list of current RSOs on Bulldog Connect, or attend the RSO recruitment event that happens in the spring semester.