Hallway Becomes Marketplace for Causes, Projects

Tabling Scene in the Gallery of Knox College's Seymour Union

"Have you bought your Flunk Day shirts yet?" Above the shouts and bits of laughter heard through the Seymour Union Gallery, Knox College seniors Alexandra Clark and Pamela Schuller (below left) hail passersby -- "Flunk Day is tomorrow!" -- a reference to Knox's annual campus-wide spring carnival. Working at one of a several tables lining the Gallery, Schuller and Clark are selling t-shirts to raise funds for campus recreation. When the indirect approach didn't make the sale, Clark calls out to a group of her friends walking by. It works: the students move toward the t-shirt table, digging through their wallets for the cash.

This is "tabling." Several times a week, it transforms the Gallery from a window-lined hallway into a lively marketplace where students promote causes, get signatures on petitions and raise money for charities ranging from local to global.

At the Sigma Chi table colorful jewelry is spread, trying to catch the eye of potential customers. Sophomores Tim Yee and David Kurian (below right) are selling beaded jewelry made from recycled paper to support "Beads for Life," an organization that benefits people in Uganda, especially the impoverished women who made the jewelry. Beads for Life describes its mission as creating "sustainable opportunities for women to lift their families out of extreme poverty by connecting people worldwide in a circle of exchange that enriches everyone."

Close to two cafeterias, a lunch cart and a large public computer lab, the Gallery receives a considerable amount of foot traffic. Sigma Chi is just one of a half-dozen student groups working the lunch hour -- the most popular time period for tabling.

Some students sit at their tables and eat lunch, letting their signs do the work. Other tablers are active advertisers. Flunk Day t-shirt peddlers Clark and Schuller are in the latter group. Both are Gallery table veterans. In addition to student activities, Schuller has tabled for the Hillel Club, community service projects, and theatre events. A theatre major who has acted in campus productions and done stand-up comedy in several New York clubs, Schuller knows what gets a response from a crowd walking past your table: "There's a bit of theatrics involved."

Throughout the year, Knox organizations and clubs, outside vendors, and even individual students request tables. Cindy Wickliffe, secretary of the Campus Life Office, documents requests on small multicolored cards - the date the group wants to use the tables in the Gallery, the number of tables needed, and the name of the person making the request.

"I get an average of about four tables per week, 57 since the beginning of this school year," Wickliffe says. "Sometimes it's just one student doing a research survey. Sometimes campus offices request on behalf of outside non-profit groups, like summer camps. Sometimes it's a vendor, like Beyond the Wall selling posters for students' rooms."

There are rules: No credit card companies. And no last-minute requests. "The tables are not there for using any time somebody wants," Wickliffe says.

One of the most frequent table groups is Alpha Phi Omega (APO), a co-ed service fraternity. APO member Casey Patrick explains that their tabling requests depend on the project the group is working on at the moment. "The chair of the Blood Drive committee will sign up to table for a Blood Drive, and the person spearheading the CPR training would sign up when we're tabling for CPR," Patrick says. "It's the easiest way to reach the largest number of people for all the service projects we're doing on a regular basis."

Kathleen Ridlon, Coordinator of the Center for Community Service, frequently uses tables to sign-up volunteers and promote projects, both on Knox campus and in the Galesburg community.

"It's advertising, a place to get your ideas out there," Ridlon says. "Tabling is a way to have a commercial, create awareness, and build involvement."

Text by Rebecca Beno; Photography by Hannah Fidoten, Rebecca Beno, Peter Bailley

From gathering signatures for community service to selling craft beads for charity, "tabling" promotes activities, projects and causes in Knox College's student union.