Being in-person allowed a return to the infamous freebies students often look forward to at Sparticipation and Springticipation, with tote bags, water bottles and other items being given out by various organizations.

Outside of freebies, the main draw of the event was the opportunity to browse the numerous student-led clubs, fraternities and groups. University Activities Board, or UAB, assembly member Emma Nicolaysen said that Springiticipation is one of the best opportunities for RSOs to show students what they can offer them.

“What I personally want to do here tonight is just talk to as many people as I can, and let them know what events are going on around campus,” Nicolaysen said. “And how great so many of these organizations are.”

For relatively niche RSOs, the event was the perfect place to grow their member base. MSU Bug Club founder and president Osten Eschedor said that they were hoping to attract majors outside of entomology— the club’s primary focus.

“We’re hoping to expand our outreach,” Eschedor said. “We have a lot of humanities and business majors who are associated with our club. So our target demographic are people who wouldn’t otherwise be appreciative of bugs.”

Meanwhile, the Thai Student Association, or TSA, hoped to offer a “home away from home” for Thai students at MSU. TSA Vice President Apichaya Thaneerat said she hoped to simply show students that they were on-campus.

“Just make sure we let everyone know we are here,” Thaneerat said. “And then if there are other people interested in Thai culture, so we have events to enjoy and we have a place for them to learn our culture.”

Many students took Springticipation as an opportunity to get more involved on campus than they had in previous semesters. Mechanical engineering preference freshman Alex Le said he hoped to utilize MSU’s RSOs to socialize more this semester.

“Last semester, I felt like I was in my room a lot,” Le said. “So I just wanted to get out more and try to find some things to do on campus and with student life.”