UPB contest unites student organizations

Junior Melanie Duran places pictures of HASA members on their tree as the finishing touch.

The Festival of the Trees competition gave student organizations an opportunity to mingle with other groups while participating in the festivities.

Aside from the chance encounters during meetings and large multicultural events like the Eve of Nations, student organizations don’t have many opportunities to meet.

According to the University of Oklahoma’s Student Life page, there are over 400 active student organizations.

Although not all organizations were able to participate in the Friday, Nov. 30 tree decorating competition, 17 organizations such as the Hispanic American Student Association and the International Advisory Committee were present.

The International Advisory Committee decorated
 their tree with hand-painted ornaments. 

“The main thing that [the Union Programming Board] is trying to do is bring in other organizations that we can help out maybe in the future,” Ryan Moore, a marketing sophomore and UPB member in charge of the Festival of Trees said. “Also, that [organizations] can get to know each other a little bit more.”

Since this is an annual event, many organizations that participate return year after year.  The decorations vary from store bought to handmade, but the true difference is the themes of each tree.

“It’s hard because a lot of organizations just do traditional decorating, and then others do really cultural stuff,” Melanie Duran, a film and media studies junior and member of HASA said. “Since we are the Hispanic American Student Association, we can’t be specific towards a country.”

After participating for years, Duran said competitive relationships build among the organizations.

Last year, HASA’s tree won most unique and proudly hung their award in the office that they share with the Asian American Student Association. Duran said it’s become a small rivalry to see which organization can win UPB’s award.

This year, the American Indian Student Association took home the award for best tree. Along with their certificate, they were awarded Union credit towards catering or reserving a room courtesy of UPB, Moore said.

Duran said winning would have been an added bonus, but wasn’t the most important thing of the competition.

“Usually [organizations] keep to themselves at specific events and I feel like when we do stuff like this, I get to see presidents and members of other organizations,” Duran said. “It’s always nice to see everyone here.”

 The final UPB events for the semester will be scattered throughout dead week and finals week, which includes handing out free Scantrons, hot cocoa and other small events.