For years, fliers have been used as a way to spread the word about events, club activities and general meetings at Fordham University. But with the rise of social media and specifically the increased use of social media platforms as a source of information, spreading the word on events looks a little different now for student-led clubs and organizations.

Fordham University has over 240 clubs and student organizations for students to participate in across its Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses. Many of these groups use social media accounts for promotions. With an undergraduate population of approximately 11,000 students, the question of how clubs encourage student attendance and engagement awaits an answer. The Ram spoke to multiple club leaders and student organizations to inquire about this question.

Many clubs at Fordham have Instagram accounts, which are used to promote events and meetings as well as reach students who might have missed information events like club fairs. Student leaders say that advertising through Instagram posts has proven successful in bringing students to their events and keeping them engaged through the years.

“We tend to have higher attendance when we post on Instagram, probably because people check their social media apps more frequently than their email,” said Elizabeth Esterbrook, FCRH ’26, president of Fordham Debate Society.

Clare Cummings, FCRH ’26, president of The Ampersand, shared this same sentiment about outreach through their Instagram page.

“Our Instagram reaches a lot of our returning members and is an easy way for people to send information to one another to get the word out, so we utilize it quite a bit,” Cummings said.

Many clubs and student organizations also have email accounts where they can create mailing lists to send information and event reminders to students who sign up. Most sign-ups are acquired at club fairs, which happen once per semester at both campuses.

While clubs and organizations prove successful in gaining plenty of sign-ups at club fairs, particularly from first-years, according to Cummings, the number of sign-ups is not always reflected at club meetings.

“Each year we get an incredible amount of sign-ups, but not many of those translate to actual attendance,” Cummings said. “I would say that it’s the best place to garner freshman engagement.”

However, while club fair sign-ups do not always produce a proportional number of actual club attendants, club fairs are still crucial to the recruitment process, according to Esterbrook.

“Usually, we have about 150 sign-ups, and about 20% of them come to practice, which forms our 50-person team,” Esterbrook said.

For the Fashion for Philanthropy club, a social media presence does more for club attendance than a lengthy mailing list.

“Our mailing list is very big … obviously not everyone shows up,” said Fiona Dunphy, FCRH ’26, co-president of the Fashion for Philanthropy club, in an email. “To get people to show up, we try to have a pretty big social media presence.”

Dunphy said that one of the more recent struggles her club has faced is getting students to stay involved, and not just attend larger events.

“You really have to push that it’s important to come [to meetings] even if it’s not the main event,” Dunphy said.
Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Fordham College at Rose Hill have separate Offices of Student Involvement (OSI), each with its own Instagram account meant to showcase events and meetings hosted by clubs and student organizations. One of the many things the OSI does is provide support and guidance to student leaders in building, maintaining and developing their clubs.

Currently, both offices send out a weekly email listing all club and student organization activities, events and meetings that are happening that week. However, due to the number of active clubs and organizations, this email can get quite overwhelming for some students, lending to the suggestion that OSI improve its promotion of student events and activities.

“I don’t really know anyone that’s going to sit there and read through it. Like you’re scrolling for quite some time,” Dunphy said. “Maybe if they featured a couple different ones (events, meetings, activities, ect) on their story or something and made it more fun rather than a list.”

While club events remain a source of community building for students at Fordham, efforts to increase attendance and engagement continue to be a focus for student leaders, many of whom are turning to social media as a way to increase student engagement.