ASU offered Monarchs the chance to become involved in clubs despite not being able to meet on campus.
By Cassandra Nava, Staff Writer
Welcome Week for the fall semester of 2020 finished off with ASU's Club Day, offering students the chance to engage in this extracurricular activity for the first time via Zoom.
“We appreciate that you’re here,” said Student Engagement Coordinator Raquel Sanchez when greeting students and faculty. “This is the first time we’re trying this. We’re trying to figure out a way that we can bring you Club Day every month so that you can meet through this virtual world that we’re living in.”
This semester’s Club Day took place on Wednesday, Sept. 2 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sanchez, Dean of Student Life Elizabeth Negrete and Student Life Secretary Evelyn Pichardo welcomed students and described the clubs present such as TAE (Tau Alpha Epsilon), Broadcasting, Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Unity and more. If students wanted to hear more about a specific club, they were moved to a “breakout room” where they had the opportunity to speak to the presidents or advisors separately.
Students were able to “visit” as many clubs as they wanted, and were being patched through by Sanchez and Pichardo. Once sufficiently informed on the statements given by the club, students could return to the main session of the Zoom meeting where they could ask to be put in another club.
When asked about how clubs will fare virtually, Maya, co-chair of the YDSA club (who asked that we only use her first name for privacy reasons) stated, “I’m actually a little bit optimistic because one of the big issues on campus was that every time we wanted to have a club meeting we had to reserve a room, and this was always incredibly hard. Now we have Zoom! There's no need to reserve a room, we can just send an email blast to everybody when we want to talk.”
ASU plans to continue a monthly club day, with the next one scheduled for Sept. 30 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Students will be sent an email from Valley College informing them on how to sign up. Sanchez stated the reason for the extended hours was to include as many students as possible, primarily evening students.
By the end of the month, more clubs will be registered and chartered, so students will have a greater chance of viewing an even larger selection. The schedule for this semester’s Club Days, as well as the descriptions for clubs, is posted on the Inter-Club Council page on Valley’s website. ASU will also keep students updated on how to join individual clubs via their Instagram, @lavcasu.
“Our sense of community will be different,” said GSA club co-advisor Kimberly Robeson. “As long as we try to meet weekly, we can try to build a really great sense of community. We can still do activist work and accomplish goals as long as students show up to these meetings.”
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