More than 200 students came to the Otter Showcase at Cal State Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) Main Quad on Sept. 4, looking to build connections and community among the 75 student organizations that attended.
Wednesday’s showcase welcomed CSUMB’s largest-ever incoming class of first-year and transfer students to their second week of the fall semester.
“We do have a lot more students,” said Annika Altman, a third-year liberal studies major. “You can tell just by walking on campus…it’s way busier than it has been in years past, which is really exciting for all the clubs here.”
Altman, president of the university’s Otter Sailing Club, said that for new students especially, the Otter Showcase was a great way to find footing at CSUMB.
“It can be really stressful to be a new student. I think people want [to join] a club that’s going to offer an inviting and accepting environment,” Altman said.
Second-year business major Isaiah Darrett echoed this, adding that “it’s hard to make friends when you move to a new place. So a lot of these freshmen just want a sense of belonging.”
But for many, beyond simply welcoming the recent influx of new students, the Otter Showcase challenged a common complaint students share at CSUMB – that the campus seems too quiet.
“I definitely think the people who complained about [campus] feeling dead are going to start to struggle to say that because we have so much more energy here on campus with all of the new students,” said Altman, noting the liveliness of the event.
According to Altman, “There’s lots of ways to get involved…you might have to look for them, but there’s plenty of events here.”
Sunny Dela Pena, fourth-year business administration major and president of the Anime Club, has heard these complaints as well:
“I’ve said it myself, ‘There’s nothing to do here. There’s no community.’”
“Well, there’s no community because you don’t go out and search for those communities. They exist, but sometimes they’re underground,” Dela Pena said.
Underground or not, it seemed that students at the Showcase didn’t have to look very far to find opportunities for connection, as many tables, the Anime club included, bustled with interested students. With more than 300 registered members and twice-weekly events, the Anime club is one of CSUMB’s most successful student organizations.
Trying to put a finger on the reasons for their high participation, third-year communication design major and Anime club Vice President, Holden Ivashin said, “I think it’s the combination of a communal place where we can all connect and then other areas outside [of campus] where we can learn more about each other.”
With seemingly ample opportunity to find community, according to Rawland Echlen, third-year marine science major, students complaining about a lack of community on campus “might just be saying that it’s hard to reach out to people.”
“I think it’s more of a statement about how people are nowadays. It’s so easy to connect with somebody else who might be far away with your phone that I think sometimes we forget to connect with people who are near us,” Echlen said.
In agreement that connection can be challenging, Diego Diaz, a fourth-year human development and family science major, encouraged students seeking community to push themselves despite the initial discomfort and to keep trying different groups until they find the right fit.
“The first step in [finding] community is stepping out of your comfort zone,” Diaz said.
“I think that that’s what [this event] is all about–seeing what community you fit with. If you don’t feel that with a certain community, there’s so many other communities out here that you can probably fit in with.”