New group aims to promote self-expression

One of the newest student organizations owes its inception to a simple doodle.

Junior Jordan Magid came up with the idea to begin U-Doodle after his friend, junior Marc Fruitema, started doodling during one of their conversations.

“At first I was like, ‘Dude, are you actually doodling right now?’” Magid said. “Then as we started talking about how often he draws like that I just kind of thought about how cool it would be for other people to add to your doodle.”

U-Doodle has been recently approved by Committee on Student Organizations (COSO).

The group hopes to use doodling to create a social platform through which people can be creative and express themselves.

“Doodling is something that everyone has the ability to do, whether it’s when you’re bored in class, or just because you enjoy it,” said sophomore Jared Kim, a member of the organization. “Through U-Doodle, we can bring people together and encourage community and collaboration through the simple act of doodling.”

Currently, the organization holds monthly public doodle sessions in the Breezeway. It also sets up doodle spots at various events.

U-Doodle recently received a $500 grant from Good, a website that is made possible due to a collaboration of individuals, businesses and non-profits that report on creative ideas.

Each month, Good holds challenges relating to different topics. Members of the Good community are then asked to vote on the best entry. The winner typically receives a cash prize to fund the idea or project. U-Doodle was one of the 47 ideas that applied to win the challenge for the $500 grant.

“Being that U-Doodle was only officially approved as a UM Student Organization this semester, winning a national competition proved to the founding members of U-Doodle that its potential was as limitless as we had hoped it would be,” said Matt Cacciaguida, a junior and member of the group.

The grant will double the amount of funds the group currently has and will allow them to begin to expand their organization outside the university. The money will be sued to materials and supplies for the artists who come to their events.

“We plan to allocate the money to campus expenses and to extend the organization to community outreach and volunteer events,” said Treasurer Jeremy Mizraji.

Because U-Doodle does not collect membership fees, the group’s only source of revenue is through T-shirt sales, donations and grants, like the one they received from Good.

U-Doodle is currently in the process of planning a gallery for the doodles and some study events during reading days. They are also planning to participate in community projects and workshops where they will focus on integrating their creativity into the environment.

“The future has a lot of plans, but really we’re trying to keep steady and focused on the grassroots portion of our organization,” Magid said. “Our primary goal this year was to establish a Doodle Community on campus, and create a home for the organization.”