Students will have the opportunity to explore 925 student organizations at this year’s involvement fair. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Lantern File Photo
Students will have the opportunity to explore the 925 organizations at the university and discover ways to get involved on campus before fall semester classes begin.?
The Autumn 2026 student involvement fair will take place on Aug. 23 in the Oval and South Oval from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and organizers said they will partner with the Ohio State app and Student Life Disability Services to create break spaces and other accessible needs for the occasion.?
“I genuinely think it’s such a big event, but [the involvement fair] really does kick off your sense of ‘this is some place where I am one of many, but I can also find my spot within that many,’” Liz Westrick, the coordinator for student organizations and involvement for student life, said.
Last year, for the first time, Student Organizations and Involvement utilized the Ohio State app to create “access guides” for students as they navigate the fair. This means that a week before the day of the event, students can access a map of the entire fair, showing where each organization is located, along with a description and contact information, according to Westrick.
Students will also be able to use the map on the app to find their way through the fair as well. They can use their phones to generate a route for them to get to a certain table or organization.
“It really is so user-friendly,” Westrick said. “We put in a lot of work to make it as user-friendly and as helpful as we possibly can. So if people want to go through and plan out their journey through the fair, or they just want to see what’s there before they’re in the fair and they’re overwhelmed by all of the sounds and people, they can look ahead and see who’s gonna be there, who they want to visit and they can ‘favorite’ them. It’s amazing.”?
In addition to the continuation of utilizing the university app, this will be the first year that the involvement fair will partner with Student Life Disability Services.
Earplugs for any sensory needs and accessibility guides will be available. Accessibility guides can be found on the Ohio State app closer to when the event is held, and will act as an overlay of the original fair map to show students specific buildings that they can go into for air conditioning, quiet spaces or to find restrooms and cold water during the time of the event, according to Westrick.
These spaces will be called “open access break spaces” and can be found at nearby buildings such as Thompson Library, the Ohio Union and the Wexner Center of the Arts.?
“Especially for new students who don’t know what’s open and what’s available for them to go and take a breath and cool down a bit, because we don’t know what the weather is going to be,” Westrick said. “So, we’re super excited about that. It is in the marketing phase right now, so we’re hoping to have a finished product really soon to start giving that out to anyone that needs it.”
Similarly, there will be tents set up outside of Mendenhall and Hagerty Hall on the Oval with water bottles, ice, first aid, SLDS specialists and restrooms off to the side.?
According to the involvement fair’s policies and expectations document, students should prepare to attend in light rain or shine, and cancellation will only occur if severe weather is expected.?
On top of these new accessibility changes, the involvement fair is a great way for students to get involved with the university.
“There are so many organizations that they can focus on and say ‘instead of being one of 60,000 at Ohio State, I can be one of 20 in this organization that I have a lot in common with these people, and we have this shared interest and shared goal,’ and that is really important,” Westrick said. “Especially for first-year students or second-year students who are trying to find their place on campus.”
Westrick said that the fair is expected to be bigger than last year, having 37 more tables. The number of student organizations keeps increasing.
“The community has officially reached 1,500 registered active student organizations,” Westrick said. “The demand is going up, up, up. We have a waitlist of about 100 organizations that I can’t guarantee a spot unless other people drop out or they don’t show up on the day of the fair.”
Westrick said that students should explore what the fair has to offer and that students should sign up for more organizations rather than not putting themselves out there.
“Keep an open mind, and if you do need a break, find an open access break space,” Westrick said. “Find a building that you can just take a minute, recenter yourself and go back. It really is what you put into it.”
