The Indiana Memorial Union’s Alumni Hall will be transformed into an international bazaar Friday night for the 10th anniversary of IU World’s Fare and Night Market, a collaboration between the Office of International Services and Union Board.
“It’s a great chance for both domestic and international students,” IU junior Josh Thomas said. “It provides a great opportunity for them to learn about these different cultures, interact with different students that they pass every day on campus and learn about where they come from.”
The event will feature 25 booths representing international student organizations across campus and be followed by the Night Market, which is a collaboration between the normal IU Late Nite programming and the World’s Fare.
Thomas is director of the spirit and traditions committee on Union Board. He said Union Board is instrumental in conducting World’s Fare every year. He said the access it has to areas of the Union such as Alumni Hall and the Solarium and joint social media marketing are key when planning events with other offices on campus.
Allison LeClere, a graduate assistant in the Office of International Services, said Union Board is what helps the event get off the ground and running.
“Each year we get about 1,500 students and community members who stop by,” LeClere said. “This year we’re hoping to get even more, so it’s going to be a really big event, especially since we’re partnering with IU Late Nite.”
LeClere said she thinks World’s Fare provides international students with means not only to teach others about their culture but also understand how the campus as a whole respects diversity.
“Considering recent events, I think it’s important now more than ever to show international students how much they mean to our campus and how much we value them,” LeClere said.
She said a difference between this event and previous World’s Fares is an absence of food at each individual booth. This was done intentionally.
“College students love food, so they’ll come, eat food and then kind of leave,” LeClere said.
This year, visitors to the event will be provided with a program, on the back of which contains a small passport page. LeClere said when people visit each booth, they can get a stamp from the country that booth is representing. The stamps are redeemable for food, which will be in a separate room.
According to iStart, IU’s resource website for international students, there are more than 6,000 international students on the Bloomington campus alone. They account for more than one-tenth of the population.
Thomas, who just won re-election to Union Board, said the face-to-face interactions that visitors to the World’s Fare will experience can generate positive dialogue about different cultures.
“I really hope people come away from this event feeling more connected to the world around them and the different places and cultures that are represented on this campus,” Thomas said.
