This year, Simpson College’s tradition of Campus Day will be slightly different to those in previous years because of a number of changes made to the program.

“We are taking a very different approach to Campus Day in a few different ways,” sophomore class president Tyson Wirtz said. “The main changes have been switching the events to the afternoon and bringing a mentalist, Chris Carter, to campus that night to provide entertainment for students.”

Wirtz said there were multiple reasons as to why it was decided to switch Campus Day to the afternoon instead of having it in the morning.”We felt that moving the service projects to the afternoon would be beneficial in several ways,” Wirtz said. “We first feel that the weather will be much more pleasant in the afternoon. It is often quite cold in the morning and we think that it will be a better experience in the afternoon with weather, because we could do more projects and also pump up students’ attitudes.”

According to Wirtz, another reason for the change is to allow Simpson alums to get involved.

“It seems that it is easier for alumni, especially in Des Moines, to take off work in the afternoon and come help out and get involved,” Wirtz said.Wirtz also said that they want to make Campus Day more about student involvement and not just about service projects.

“We would like to create an atmosphere in which students work together on projects, eat with other students, go to the entertainment at night, and take part in the intramural kickball tournament,” Wirtz said. “Having the event in the morning was not conducive to the atmosphere that we were trying to create, so we decided to try the afternoon.”

Junior Shayna Calkins said she likes the idea of having Campus Day in the afternoon.

“I love service, but last year I didn’t participate because it was so early,” Calkins said. “This year, because it’s in the afternoon, I’m definitely going to participate.”

Every year, Simpson hosts Campus Day as a way of giving back to the community. Students form groups to help improve the appearance of the campus and surrounding communities. Projects in years past have included cleaning up the soccer fields, spreading mulch, raking leaves, and cleaning up residences in Indianola.

Wirtz said some of this year’s projects include assisting residents at The Village, working at Wesley Woods and working at the Indianola Public Library and elsewhere in the community. While groups can request specific projects, according to Wirtz most of the groups are assigned projects.

Students who have not yet registered are still in luck. There is still plenty of time to get a team together for Campus Day.

“There have been e-mails sent out with links for registration,” Wirtz said. “There is a Campus Day event page on Facebook with a link, and the SGA minutes also have a link for sign-up. We encourage people to sign up as soon as they have a team and if they have any problems just contact me.”

Campus Day is April 7. Lunch starts at 11:30 a.m. and ends at 12:45 p.m.. The service projects last from 1-3 p.m.; the mentalist will be at 7 p.m., followed by intramural kickball at 8 p.m.Wirtz said every student is encouraged to participate in Campus Day.