Annual celebration brings new look to student center

Students and faculty alike came together on Jan. 25 to celebrate the 3^rd birthday of the Rayburn Student Center. The festivities started at roughly 11:00 a.m., and students quickly got in line for various activities and giveaways, including free T-shirts among other things.

This year's celebration brought change to the A&M-Commerce campus with the revelation of the building's new name, the Rayburn Student Center. Along with this name change from "Sam Rayburn Student Center" came a new logo that many individuals, including Assistant Director of Greek Life Zach Shirley, were excited to unveil.

"We had anticipated it, and we were leading up to it, " Shirley said. "We came in and put our shirts on early this morning and had jackets zipped up to conceal it and keep it secret, and then that big revealing came when we got to show off the new logo."

Celebrations continued throughout the day despite rainy weather conditions, which some individuals were worried might deter students from participating.

"I think it's extremely successful," Shirley said. "I think, especially given the weather, a lot of students are coming out to fellowship with their peers and participate in Lions Leap events."

Many students were excited to take part in the events held during the day, and see the chainsaw juggler later that evening. Members of the A&M-Commerce community could be seen all over campus enjoying free cupcakes when they were available in The Club. Some A&M-Commerce students were excited to see their peers coming together for the celebration despite the weather.

"It's a good way to get out of they rain," Junior Keyania Campbell said. "It seems like they went all out. They got a chainsaw juggler – never seen one of those – and everybody loves a free T-shirt. I feel like a lot of people missed the point. It's the student center's birthday, but they don't think about that, they just think of the events, but…it's got a lot of students actually getting out and being social for a moment. I'm glad that [A&M-Commerce] decided to do this for us."

Student Government Association President Adria Green explained that the level of student participation in this year's festivities did not surprise her, and she is proud to see so many students interacting on campus.

"Usually when we have free incentives and shirts and things of that nature there's always long lines, so it's good to see a lot of traffic," Green said. "Whenever we have free stuff the students will come. The students' fees pay for it, so might as well put it to good use with the students."