Everyone is asking the question – What’s Happening with the Happening? – and it’s no surprise to hear that this year The Happening will look different than previous years at VSU due to COVID-19.

The Happening is an event for VSU clubs and organizations to showcase their special qualities to attract incoming freshmen. This event typically takes place on the front lawn at the beginning of the school year, however, the event will now take place on the Palms Quad, the Georgia courtyard and the Langdale courtyard over four separate days starting Aug. 25 and ending on Aug. 27.

John Wright, the associate director of student life, said that in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines and to keep traffic flowing at The Happening, there will only be a total of 50 groups allowed at a time on each day of The Happening.

Students who attend The Happening are also required to stay 6 feet away from each other and wear their face masks at all times. Student organizations will not be able to cook their own food, but they can serve prepackaged food and pass out free items.

COVID-19 isn’t the only thing affecting The Happening this year. Inclement weather has also proven to be an issue. The Happening was scheduled to begin on Monday, Aug. 24, but because of of high chances of rainfall, Student Life has been forced to reschedule days to ensure every organization that has registered for The Happening gets to participate.

Of course, along with something as massive as The Happening, students have shown concern about having an event during a pandemic.

“[The campus] is a cesspool for the spread of the virus, so I’m concerned for people giving food and sharing food like they did last year,” he said.

Even with concerns, some upperclassmen are still excited to see that freshmen will be able to experience this event and be able to see what organizations they could potentially join.

“I’m hoping to see a mixture of all students not only interact with other students of all classes, but with other different social groups and clubs and see what they can do in their free time to not only help their grades, but their sense of being,” Pax Evans, another VSU sophomore said.

Wright also said that the way this event is scheduled to happen this year will go back to the roots of how it happened when the event was first created. Students will be able to provide feedback on this change. If the changes are proven to be successful, then it could become the normal way of hosting The Happening.

“So historically, the first couple of years we did the happening, it was actually where Georgia Hall is, then it moved to Palm’s quad and then it outgrew that space,” Wright said. “So, we moved it to the front lawn, then every year it has grown to where we had to use both the north and south side.”

Written by Kilie Huckleby,Staff Writer. Photo courtesy of Valdosta State University.