Link Crew leaders reconnected with dozens of  freshmen during a rootbeer social on March 23 in the quad.

The annual event, according to ASB president senior Mitali Shanbhag, was initially created in order for junior and senior Link Crew leaders to catch up with their freshmen and address any issues or concerns they may have.

“It’s really important to revisit that connection that all the Link Crew leaders made with our freshmen during the summer in order to reinforce the idea that that they have access to any kind of help if they need it,” Shanbhag said.

Senior Link Crew commissioner Neythra Srinivasan said a major goal of this year’s social was to make sure it did not feel like an obligation for the freshmen.

“I remember that in my freshman year, Link Crew felt like a real waste of time, since we would just go to some random class during tutorial and sit there till we could leave,” Srinivasan said. “So this year, Link Crew hoped to show freshmen that Link Crew could also be useful, not just something they are obligated to do.”

By making the event non-mandatory, the Link Crew hoped that the freshmen would be already motivated to attend purely to enjoy the drinks and reconnect with their junior and senior leaders — and the event, according to freshman Dhruv Shah, did just that.

“Although I wasn’t really expecting much out of the event, it ended up being actually really useful,” Shah said. “I was able to talk with my Link Leaders for the first time in a while and even got a few questions answered about my schedule for next year.”