Continuing look at Oshkosh clubs and organizations

The CARE/MenCARE campus organization exists to educate the student body on issues about personal relationships.

Bailey Murphy, one of the student directors of the club, said, "CARE stands for Campus Awareness and Relationship Education … volunteers are called peer educators."

The idea is that students troubled by personal relationship problems are more likely to heed the advice of classmates than faculty or authority figures.

CARE was founded in the 1980s "mainly to raise awareness about sexual assault on campus," according to Rutz.

Katy Ahrlichs is a campus minister for the Titan Christian Fellowship.

"(The purpose of the group) is to lead students to [a] deeper relationship with Jesus Christ," Ahrlichs said. 

With that drive in mind, the Fellowship encourages students to share their faith with other students on campus. The Fellowship's theme is "Arms Opened Wide," adopted from Romans 15:7.

The Fellowship has about 40 members, most of them committed Christians already with about 25-30 attending weekly meetings.

Ministry director Jeremy Rush founded the Fellowship eight years ago. Currently the club organizes several activities every semester. They do winter/fall retreats, a spring break mission trip, small group Bible studies and camping trips.

John Nerat is the president of the UW-Oshkosh College Republicans. The College Republicans' purpose on campus is "to gather like-minded individuals and exercise conservative values." To this end, the College Republicans support candidates "of interest" and work to increase voter turnout in elections.

The College Republicans have been involved in campaigns, making phone calls and organizing literature drops.

They invited a speaker to campus for April 27 to discuss global warming. They recently attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. in February.

The group was founded in the 1980s, making it one of the oldest on campus. Currently, it has 10-15 active members, and at a typical weekly meeting (held Tuesday at 9 p.m. in Reeve) 10 members will attend.

The Public Relations Student Society of America has a local branch at UW-Oshkosh, led by president Heather Wade. The organization's purpose is to "try to prepare students for life after graduation." According to the national PRSSA website, the group's purpose is "to serve our members by enhancing their knowledge of public relations and providing access to professional development opportunities."

Nationwide, the Public Relations Society of America was founded in 1968. According to the national PRSSA website, the student branch PRSSA was founded in 1988.

UW-Oshkosh's branch was founded over 10 years ago, estimates Wade. Currently, there are 20 active members on campus, out of more than 9,000 organization members nationwide.

The local PRSSA recently participated in an event to promote organ donation.
In addition, they organize tours of press agencies and attend national and regional conferences. They usually participate in two national campaigns a year.