It has just recently been shared to students at UNC that they will not be hosting Fall Fest this year. This has come as a big shock to many, since UNC claimed for months now that they had been planning on hosting this event for students. On top of this, UNC's reasoning is questionable at best, citing students feeling "overwhelmed" being the big reason for cancelling this event. Their solution is instead to offer a series of "Small Fests" in the Pit, where each day different student organizations can advertise themselves for a select period of time. overlapping with FDOC

There are multiple issues with UNC's approach to this. First of all, student organizations have already been struggling with gaining new members. I know that in my freshman year in fall 2019, I signed up and joined a large number of clubs that night. However, last year I didn't even consider joining any clubs at all, and that can be mainly attributed to Fall Fest not being in full force due to the online nature of it. I know that I am not the only student who had these experiences too, as most everyone I know wasn't active in any student organizations last year. With Fall Fest being the largest source of new members for these student organizations that have clearly been struggling to gain new members, it is perplexing why UNC would even consider getting rid of this opportunity.

To make matters worse, these Small Fests will be held during the late morning/early afternoon. This wouldn't necessarily be an issue, if it weren't for the fact that these fests will be held after FDOC. So, in other words, UNC will only be hosting these events when most students will more than likely be in class. The whole appeal of Fall Fest was that it was before FDOC, so there was no chance of classes interfering, and that it was at night, so most other events that would have been happening that day on campus would have already wrapped up. UNC seems to really not understand what the students want or any appeal to Fall Fest in the first place.

Fall Fest is also simply a great social atmosphere. Many students, particularly the rising sophomores, have had issues with making new friends, in large part due to the online nature of last year. Many of them were unable to gain those friendships and connections that many of the rest of us were able to make in student organizations, due to the lack of a typical Fall Fest and the ability to join these organizations. On top of that, the incoming freshmen class also shares these concerns too, with it still seeming up in the air for what UNC's plan is at all this semester. So again, why would UNC want to take this away from students who need these social interactions to even feel welcome on campus.

To combat the point that UNC made about students feeling overwhelmed at Fall Fest, check out this great and informative Reddit post by u/StarlightMirage on UNC's subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/UNC/comments/omsc4l/no_more_fall_fest_warning_rant/

They said it best when they said, "the whole point of Fall Fest was being overwhelmed, so that you knew about what was available at UNC." On top of this, Fall Fest has always been, and still was supposed to be this year, completely voluntary. So, even if students being overwhelemed was an issue, students could either leave or simply not attend, since there still will be online resources for those students.

Lately, many students, including myself, have felt let down and mistreated by the university. Many of their actions lately have shown that they don't necessarily have the students' best interests at heart, and this is just yet another example. Actions like this from the university have only led to a more and more negative public opinion of the school, even from the student body. If this behavior continues, UNC should expect an even worse PR and increased drop out/transfer rates, since many of us simply feel let down by the university. The school just went through a huge blow to their public perception from recent events, so let's not make this the final nail in the coffin for many of us.