A great deal of advertising for campus events is done online now, whether via Facebook, Twitter, OrgSync or email. While this is convenient and cost-effective, it leaves a relatively small impact. Tulane is not lacking in venues for promotion, with chalking on McAlister Drive and spaces in the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life. But a clearer, established place to advertise would better serve students by giving them a spot to get information on upcoming events and club meetings, as well as benefiting the organizations trying to reach them.

Organizations like Tulane University Campus Programming, Tulane After Dark, Undergraduate Student Government and others can promote various events such as concerts and other events that aren’t just the Boot Bar and Grill’s happy hour. These events are publicized to a certain degree by posting online, tabling or chalking, but even then they can’t reach everyone. 

Tulane Athletics faces a similar predicament generating interest for games and other events. Word-of-mouth works, to a certain degree, but is still unreliable, and questionable as a source of accurate information.

Often, receiving a Facebook event invite only stays in someone’s mind for the time it takes to mark that they’re “interested.” Mass event-invites also have a limited scope. Even in a large organization where every member invites all their Facebook friends, it is unlikely that the information will reach even a significant number of people on campus. In smaller organizations, getting the word out is even more difficult.

Tabling is regarded by many as the go-to for promoting events on campus. It commands more attention than a flyer and it’s harder to ignore someone promoting in earnest. The notoriously rainy New Orleans weather, however, can make tabling difficult. The in-your-face effect of tabling is also lost when McAlister Drive is lined up and down with people promoting different organizations.

Many groups also use McAlister Drive for chalking, though the weather and number of advertisements also dilute the impact.

Some college campuses have large wooden kiosks where event posters, club flyers, help-wanted ads and more can be attached to reach the widest number of students. Tulane used to have kiosks similar to these strategically placed around campus, but they were not rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina.

The bulletin boards set up around campus offer a similar venue for promotion, but only one poster per event can be placed on each bulletin board and it first must be approved by University Services to fit the appropriate size and information requirements.

The LBC, as a hub for student-life has potential for becoming that established space. Large video walls in the LBC and elsewhere on campus promote events and there are some spaces for posters as well. A conscious movement to make the LBC an even more established space for promotion would be beneficial to various groups, as well as the students they are trying to reach.

Having a specific wall in the LBC for posters in a visible space on the main floor would be a solid step further than a bulletin board and would set it apart as a place students can go to see what’s going on on-campus. Pushing the video walls as a resource for more events by displaying a calendar would be useful as well. There are many options available to make event advertising easier and Tulane should look into making those a reality, both for the sake of event planners and increasing quality of life for students as a whole.