It’s a common sight at EMU: a club event with few attendees, an empty sign-up sheet, a home game with a sparse student section. With enrollment numbers declining, seeing fewer students around campus is to be expected. But student leaders, with the support of staff, are working behind the scenes to make EMU a more engaged campus.

Davis Bert, SGA Co-President, cited the number of students living off campus as a reason why participation in campus activities might seem to be low. “We’re trying to do better about making them feel more comfortable on campus, and feel like they are welcome to join these events,” Bert said. He also acknowledged that many students have jobs, so it can be difficult to plan events where people with busy work schedules can attend.

Per EMU’s online Fact Book, the percentage of undergraduate students living off campus has overall decreased over the last 10 years, with a slight increase each year for the past three years. This fall, 44% of undergraduates live off campus, down from 57% in the 2016 fall semester, but up from a 10-year low of 41% in the fall of 2024. 

Two of Campus Activities Council’s (CAC) three co-presidents, Mathew Lawson and Barry Adamu, said that they have seen an increase in participation in CAC activities from last year. They said that first-years, in particular, have been at the events this year while they didn’t see many first-years participating last year. “We’ve been sending out more advertising,” Lawson said. “We make sure it comes out on Mondays, and we put it out on the Royal Radar every time.”

“Another thing is dual events, where CAC does an event in tandem with another club,” Adamu said. “It usually gets more, because two different clubs are advertising it, and people that come for one also end up going to the other event as well.” 

Lawson referenced CAC’s collaboration with Asian and Pacific Islander Student Alliance (APISA) and Black Student Alliance (BSA) on two Paint and Sips, which brought even more students to an already popular event.

The two co-presidents also said that intercultural trips are a reason that event attendance might fluctuate from semester to semester. “A good chunk of people might be gone for the semester, and that could be a chunk of people that usually come out to events,” said Adamu.

Along with CAC and other club events, athletics provide another way for students to engage on campus. Carrie Bert, Director of Athletics, said in an email that student athletes tend to support each other by showing up to other teams’ games. 

“Rowdy Royals as Engage points certainly help to get much of the student body out for games, but I’m not sure it has worked to build interest outside of the benefit of the Engage point,” Bert said in an email. “That said, there is a core group of students who continue to show up, cheer, and encourage the participation of other students.”

“We’ve seen increased attendance and overall engagement with competitions which is very exciting,” Bert said. “Our student fans are leading cheers, making noise, and supporting athletes in competition with renewed energy.”

Tyler Goss, Director for Student Engagement and Leadership Development, oversees the Engage program, though he clarified he’s not involved in Rowdy Royals beyond the Engage point aspect. Goss, along with a team of staff members, plan and promote Engage events. Additionally, Goss said, “People can also just submit an event idea, and we just give them the tools to make that happen.”

Goss also oversees clubs and organizations. He noted that “there’s always an ebb and flow with the clubs and orgs.” Currently, he says, more juniors and seniors are in club leadership compared to in the past. “I used to say that sophomores ran the school, because juniors would often be going on intercultural during that time,” Goss said. Now, because of the flexibility in the intercultural program, more juniors and seniors are serving in these roles. Goss also said that in most clubs, “a lot of the weight kind of comes down to a few individuals to make it happen.” 

“There’s a lot of clubs,” Goss said. “And there’s a lot of things to do and be involved in, and so I think people don’t want to be involved in every single thing. And so they kind of pick and choose, and so maybe that’s why not as many people show up.” 

SGA’s initiative for the year is to “make engagement cool again.” Davis Bert explained that two internal committees, the hype committee and the poster committee, are focused on getting more students to activities, games, and performances. “Engagement comes in many forms,” he said, “But one of the biggest forms is showing up, and … it means, like, tenfold to what I think they probably realize.”