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What was formerly a bustling, borderline chaotic two-day event, has been fanned out over five days and organized categorically. Each of the 218 student organizations participating in the event this year are designated a day and time throughout the week, based on their club’s characteristics, where students can tune in, live on Zoom, to find out more about the club, its offerings and chat with fellow members. This Friday, for example, is spaced for the religious and cultural organizations.<\/p>\n
Leanne Meyers, 21, is the lead programming student for Beach Pride Events and led the charge on organizing the scheduling. She noted that a bright side to taking a virtual route was that the process of finding and signing up for clubs is much simpler and straightforward, as it can all be done instantaneously on the app.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past when things were in-person, if you were looking for a specific club, looking for their table could be very overwhelming because there\u2019s so much going on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The hundreds of clubs and student organizations rely on Week of Welcome to attract new members. That was part of why ASI wanted to make sure the event could carry on virtually. But with no indication as to when in-person gatherings can resume on campus, the clubs are having to figure out just how to carry on through the semester, or if it\u2019s even worth doing so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the groups are stressed a little bit\u2026I know, for example, that\u2019s really affecting the Greek community because their numbers are so large and there\u2019s housing and things like that,\u201d Ware said. \u201cThey\u2019re really trying to navigate how to continue with their clubs\u2019 registrations and transferring of offices from one year to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Cal State Long Beach is a commuter school with nearly 33,000 undergraduate students, Week of Welcome can be an important event in helping students feel more connected to their campus. Even if students never signed up for a club, they were immersed in a visceral experience, new faces, the chatter, the commotion of it all. It was a piece of the college experience, something returning students feel the loss of and that freshman can, as of now, only imagine.<\/p>\n “It’s been a really weird adjustment and obviously no one was expecting it. It’s been tough,” said Meyers, who will be leaving CSULB with a degree in communications at the end of the semester. She also mentioned that she still doesn’t know when she’s going to be able to experience her graduation commencement.<\/p>\n “I’m still trying my best to find ways to stay connected with people. It’s hard to make friends [now]. In person, it was really easy to just kind of meet someone in your class and like get their number to share notes and then you become friends.”<\/p>\n One of ASI’s answer to this is Speed Friending, which is exactly what it sounds like: similar to speed dating, students can interact with each other one-on-one and chat for a few minutes and exchange phone numbers if the like before moving on to the next person. They accomplish this using the breakout room feature on Zoom.<\/p>\n They’ve also re-initiated their Poetry Lounge, which serves as more of a virtual open mic night\u2014where people can sing, play an instrument, dance or do just about anything else.<\/p>\n “We did that over Zoom to kind of still create that inclusive environment where people don’t feel pressured to share in front of like a really large group and it’s really overwhelming,” Meyers said.<\/p>\n The other focus of ASI’s efforts is by creating live virtual entertainment, activities that are fun, unique and will hopefully give students something to look forward to through the semester.<\/p>\n Local DJ B-Rokk, a CSULB alum who worked in various departments in ASI before graduating, held a live-streamed concert for students on Wednesday\u2014a popular event, Meyers said, because students can talk with the Zoom chat function and also use virtual backgrounds that \u201cadd to the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n To end the Week of Welcome event on a high note, will be Drag Bingo hosted by Monique Heart, from Ru Paul\u2019s Drag Race season 10.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/03150252\/WoWpromophoto-1110x740.jpg\")