The Campus Involvement Center gave a $700 grant to the Commuter Council to sponsor more activities and attract new members.
The additional funding allows the council to offer different group events and to give away free tickets to campus activities as well as recruit more commuters.
The Commuter Council is a student group that works with the residential life’s Commuter Connection program to serve the needs of students who live off campus.
Most of the grant will go toward events for current Commuter Council members, but will also serve to recruit new members.
One of those events took place last weekend, when six commuters went to Afton Alps for a day of skiing and snowboarding.
“We wanted to plan an event that would be really fun and a lot of different people would want to go to,” said Jordana Whyte, a senior and one of two commuter assistants.
Several new members showed up at the event, Whyte said, and since then have been at the Commuters Unite events this week.
Whyte said it is that type of involvement they hope all of the new events will spawn.
The ski trip was especially welcoming for the Commuter Council because they have had trouble attracting students since their inception at the beginning of fall quarter.
“We’ve had trouble bringing students together,” Whyte said.
Along with events like the ski trip, the funding is going to pay for ticket giveaways.
“We’re trying to generate response from the listserv,” Whyte said. The listserv distributes e-mail to several hundred commuting students. The tickets — for events at The Whole, Ted Mann Orchestra Hall and other places on campus — will be given away on the listserv.
The group wanted to go to Winterfest, but received the funding too late, said Susan Stubblefield, coordinator of residential life.
“We plan on participating in Spring Jam as a group,” Whyte said.