Amidst a spiral of colorful balloons and streamers, campus organizations came together yesterday at the D.P. Culp University Center to celebrate Winter Cruise 2005.
The cruise was an opportunity for campus organizations to inform students about the many and varying alliances available to them at ETSU.
This year’s theme, “Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass,” immediately helped to capture the students’ attention with an assortment of characters and sayings familiar to everyone.
The cruise theme was based upon the popular stories of Lewis Carroll, a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Oxford during the 19th century.
“Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting,” a famous line spoken by The White Rabbit, was posted on the main doors of the Culp Center, reminding students and visitors, who like Alice, would be “moved through a land of wonders, wild and new.”
And like Alice, the students became “curiouser and curiouser” as they traveled throughout the Culp Center.
Ashleigh Miller, a master of arts in liberal studies graduate student, represented the Center for Community Engagement, Learning and Leadership, whose slogan was “Of Course You Are A Leader.”
“The theme of this year’s Winter Cruise is ‘Through the Looking Glass,’ and what better way to analyze yourself than with a personality test?” Miller said.
The personality test was just one of many activities being offered by the different organizations. Adult, Commuter and Transfer Services representative Bethany McCracken said, “We are offering information about child care, and off-campus living advisement for adult students.” Their organization is part of the ARC, which is located on the 2nd level of the Culp Center.
Ericka Basile, senior painting major, was one of the representatives from the Student Painting and Drawing Association who were selling “Tiny Paintings.” “Their goal was to support a trip to New York, to see museums and art work during the week of spring break,” Basile said.
The next booth over represented the ETSU campus programs, an organization that is responsible for supplying various forms of entertainment to ETSU students.
Stephanie Brosk, a junior political science and history major said, “Campus programs included such things as scheduling speakers, documentary series, and film series.”
T-shirts with the “Alice” theme were being sold for $5 to help defray the cost of those programs.
Buctainment, sponsor of the event, had the longest line of students and visitors waiting for free wax candles.
Jack Duncan, freshman nursing student and one of only three men in line, said he was getting a candle “for the wife and brownie points.”
The newest represented organization at this year’s event was Sigma Alpha Iota.
“We are the International Women’s Music Fraternity, and brand new on campus,” said Kimberly Correll, senior music education major and president of SAI. “We went through a year and a half being a charter group.
“We are sisters in music, love music and promote ourselves in the community through service projects like singing in nursing homes, helping local high school and middle school bands to buy music and instruments, and [teaching them] how to actually read music.” SAI has 24 active member sisters, and their advisor is Dr. Alison Deadman.
Other organizations represented included the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, whose motto was “Learn to Say the “F” word, Teaching Truths and Myths about Feminism.”
The Well, Kappa Delta, the Jewish Student Organization, the LEAP Program, the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Financial Aid, the Scholarship Office, Residence Hall Association and the ETSU Catholic Center were also represented.
The Queen of Hearts was last seen at the ID Bucs window, but she was not exclaiming, “Off with their heads!

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