You know those tables you see around campus? You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones where students sit behind a desk, probably with a sign or two propped up in University Centre or in Tier Building. The signs reflect a club they’re promoting or an election campaign they want you to support.
At one time, I remember thinking tabling was frivolous when I first started in-person classes in 2022. Tabling seemed almost intrusive — people trying to convince you to join something — and it felt like pressure to join rather than genuine interest, which I now realize after many years of attending the U of M was a very skewed notion.
Tabling, for many reasons, remains a way for students to access information about clubs available to them or to learn what kinds of activities go on around campus, instead of being in the dark as I often find most first-year students are.
Like every year, the first day of school opens in the fall, students flood the hall, there are too many people everywhere and everything vaguely smells of cheese. Despite my long-haul shifts at the university, I can’t help noticing that someone is always tabling and that first-years often don’t know what’s accessible to them. They rarely stop to chat with people campaigning and often miss opportunities to get involved in school. I was also one of the people ignoring chances to make friends and step out of my comfort zone.
I started joining clubs in my third year of university after realizing how isolated I had become and how I kept myself from my fellow students because I feared discomfort of social interaction.
Students often question where they can find the time for extracurriculars while being weighed down by schoolwork and part-time jobs. Despite these challenges, many students find that extracurriculars are a way to de-stress from everyday life. They support mental health as they involve choosing to do something you enjoy rather than only doing things you have to do. Extracurriculars encourage community building, networking and self-exploration — you might even pick up a hobby you didn’t even know you enjoyed.
Clubs at the U of M like the Chlorophyll Club, Weather Club, Book Society and Parks Club exist so students can get involved. Although extracurriculars aren’t a cure-all for students, it’s a way to share similar experiences and make a few friends.
University can feel lonely, and although you may find tabling annoying when you’re trying to navigate corridors, give it a chance, listen to what they’re trying to tell you, and you might just become more interested than you thought you would be.
I joined the Manitoban through someone tabling. I was bored that day and decided to stop and actually listen instead of ignoring the people doing the tabling, and to my surprise I remained in the paper for four years. My suggestion to you would be to stop to smell the roses, or in this case, stop to talk to the people campaigning, you’ll never know what you might just get out of it.
