Logan Voss
Those college years are meant to be the best times of a student’s life, and the majority of those years are spent on campus. However, not everyone has those same experiences—many schools lack amenities, so students are usually left with nothing to do on the weekends or after class during the week. Colleges can revive their student involvement by including these amenities.
Revamp Career Services
Career services is an excellent place for students to explore their interests and develop a career roadmap by discovering internships, externships, and other opportunities to set them up for success in the future. Although career services could work for everyone, not every student will feel confident coming in and talking with a counselor about their future career.
Take the time to revamp this area. More students discover their passions when they know that opportunities are available for them in their field of study. In addition to offering things such as:
- Volunteer opportunities
- Military service opportunities
- Graduate school preparation
There need to be other resources and opportunities students can access to help them discover a career they’ll like. Consider the creative writing major. While they enjoy weaving words together to create a poem or a blog, they will need additional resources and opportunities to blossom, such as writing workshops and career explorations in writing-related fields.
No matter what academic field a student is majoring in, they need to know their degree will be worth something after graduation. Here is what you can start offering now for other majors and concentrations:
- Career guidance
- Mentorship from alumni
- Shadowing opportunities
- Career guidance courses
Rethink Your Fitness Center
Students may have trouble fitting in time to go to the gym during the semester. Instead of setting up gyms around campus, consider establishing an outdoor fitness community. Having an outdoor gym—complete with a ropes course, rock wall, and balance beams—is especially great for students with families and off-campus and commuter students because it gives them a reason to involve themselves with the college.
Start a Student Government
Student governments are run by students, for students. Although they do experience feedback from faculty, it’s mostly news on things that will impact the campus and the student body. Student governments are open to everyone on campus, and you should provide this opportunity so students have more of a say in the changes that impact their college experience.
Students need to be involved in some way during their college career. These are the best amenities to boost student involvement in college, some of which you should start implementing right away to enhance the college experience.
