Mixing it up

By Delaney Cram, Red Cedar Log, ASMSU 
Photography by Sidney Cummins, Red Cedar Log, ASMSU 

The Breslin Center was a current of people, flowing eagerly around the looping corridor, stopping from station to station. Tables showcasing MSU organizations were set hardly farther apart than teeth, wrapping around the inner wall and forming the perimeter of the path on the outer edge. Music pulsed from a stage set up inside the entrance, playing throughout the building. 

Students from different student organizations on campus speak to potential new members at Spartan Remix, building connections and community.

Adilene Martinez, a third-year student studying social relations and policy and the treasurer of Latino Leadership in Policy, said that without events like Spartan Remix promoting diversity, there is a limit to how many people clubs can reach out to. “Participating in Spartan Remix, it opens up organizations to meet a whole diverse set of people,” Martinez said. 

Spartan Remix is a multicultural event where student organizations gather to introduce themselves and their goals to potential new members. These organizations center around a wide variety of different identities and passions. 

Students with the African Student Union perform alongside fellow group members at Spartan Remix.

Asha Harper, a third-year student studying kinesiology and the co-president of the Multicultural Undergraduate Kinesiology Association, said Spartan Remix serves as a promotional space not only for clubs, but also for resources students can access throughout their time at MSU. “A lot of these clubs are academic clubs and they give people the tools to succeed when they graduate college and go into whatever careers they’re gonna go into,” Harper said. 

“[For example] we are the multicultural undergraduate kinesiology association, and basically we’re created as a space where kin students of all backgrounds can express themselves and develop the skills to be successful in both academic and social settings,” Harper said.  

Spartan Remix provides an opportunity for students to engage with clubs and communities that they may not have otherwise found, positively contributing to campus life as a whole. Ashley Kasper, a third-year student studying psychology and the co-engagement chair of the Bailey Scholars Program, remembers Spartan Remix as a crucial event for her as a first-year. 

Sparty makes an appearance at Spartan Remix and engages with the community, taking photos with students, and supporting the community.

“I went to Spartan Remix about two [or] three years ago, and I saw someone advertising the Bailey Scholars program and I said, ‘I am so lost, I don’t know what to do, I feel so hopeless right now,’ because college can be so overbearing at times,” Kasper said. “So the Bailey Scholars program is my refuge, because I’m able to go into the Bailey space at any hour of the night and just really enjoy the vast opportunities that the Bailey space presents to me.” 

Events supporting and encouraging diversity are particularly important to the growth of student organizations and connecting communities on campus. While other events for promoting clubs occur, such as Sparticipation, Spartan Remix’s emphasis on being a multicultural event leads to students and student organizations showing up with goals of inclusivity and diversity in mind.  

Dancer in the Fantasia Ballet Folklorico performs a Mexican folk dance that incorporates the outfit through movement as part of the dance.

“I got involved because this is the only kinesiology group that’s specifically targeted towards our Black students, our underrepresented students, and making their voices heard and providing them a space just to be themselves,” Harper said. “Just looking around there are so many students of color here, there are so many organizations that are promoting diversity, and that’s really the core of our club, just social support and diversity. We really want to see a wide mix of people, which we already have, fortunately.”