School Organizations Adjust to Online School

Four campus leaders speak to the shift of running clubs online

Into the Wild (ITW), a Chartered Student Organization (CSO) which focuses on providing off-campus outdoor experiences for students, has had to let go of its popular backpacking overnights and hiking day trips due to the coronavirus.

“We’re no longer able to lead any sort of trips and we’re not able to rent out any of our gear so that makes it pretty hard for us to have any sort of impact on the school,” said ITW President Nick Rogers. 

Instead, ITW has shifted their interests to online programming where they discuss topics relevant to outdoor enthusiasts, like guides to buying sustainable hiking gear or inviting a red bull athlete to come give a presentation. 

Though Rogers expressed enthusiasm about their current programming, the difference from the group’s normal model is deeply felt. 

"These things take a good amount of time out of your day to plan but it's not nearly as rewarding as going backpacking with people who have never gone before and sharing that experience with them,” said Rogers.

For the long standing clubs of Santa Clara, the missions and traditions of their organizations are carried over to new, energetic leaders at the start of every year. This is the first year that those leaders are also responsible for the reconfiguration of their organizations to operate virtually. 

The nine CSOs are given operating budgets from the university and cover essential parts of student’s college experiences. All of them have had to find ways to fulfill these needs under the constraints of online school and a spread out student body. 

Similarly, the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP) grappled with what to do with an organization primarily focused on volunteering with local communities. 

“Due to the pandemic and nature of COVID-19, it’s unsafe for our volunteers and community partners to continue volunteering so instead we’re focusing on the educational competency and online organizing,” said Jocelyn Chi, the Associate Director of SCCAP.  

Chi noted that the shift online provided needed education in the volunteering space, hoping the preparation of their volunteer coordinators with discussions and critical reflections would become a permanent fixture in their organization. 

Still, Chi signaled concern that the balance between education and action may become an issue. 

“I think it's also getting people like ‘okay, we’re doing this reflection but what can we do to give back to our community?’” said Chi. 

Forbidden in a pandemic, the Activities Program Board (APB) has had to abandon their large concerts and upbeat on-campus events for the foreseeable future. 

“Our organization has had to redefine what we consider an event and how we are engaging with students because clearly it needed to be all online but we also want to be mindful of the fact that people are tired of their screens and desperately need a break,” said Autumn Inman, Director of APB.

APB has remedied their events to digital spaces through online concerts, craft events, and collecting student recipes and videos to share online. Inman emphasized the importance of shifting other aspects of their events beyond making them digital. 

“The team has gotten so creative and is producing more events and they happen at varying times because of time zones so I think it's cool because it provides something worthwhile for a LOT of students,” said Inman.

For the Multicultural Center (MCC), fostering community for students of color has some missing elements as well.  

“Everything has just kind of changed honestly,” said MCC Director Ángel Macías. “Our big thing is being able to go into Shapell Lounge and go into the MCC. That space alone was our home, our safe space, a place where we have meetings, you can informally meet with people.”

Besides moving their meetings online, Macías says the clubs under the MCC are figuring out how to both fundraise and celebrate their cultures digitally. He also pointed to their revival of the organization's reliance on social media channels like Slack. He shared that they try to supplement the piling on of Zoom meetings through creating Slack channels focused on recipes and non-digital activities. 

Alongside the difficulties and inconveniences, leaders discussed the benefits they’re seeing from this past quarter. For SCCAP, Chi discussed how removing the normal pressures of school has caused her organization to be more critical of their role on campus. 

“The pressure the school has to run events because you might just go ahead and run an event without thinking how that has impacted people or organizations” said Chi. “I don't think SCCAP has taken the time to do that as much in the past.”

The importance of continuing CSOs for students was illuminated when the MCC stepped in to host a safe space to debrief an incident at the fall diversity forum that left many Black students feeling unsafe. 

“Close to 80 people attended our Zoom safe space,” said Macías. “So many students felt comfortable, they really felt the community of the MCC”. 

“The MCC was kind of a home to go, I would go in there and eat my lunch and vent to people,” said Macías.“It’s a bit difficult because you log out of a safe space and you’re at home… We're really trying to explore how we build safe spaces online and how we build healing spaces as well. It’s very important.”
The time away from operation as normal has given organizations the space to assess the purposes of their club, all of them highlighting different ways they want to show up for students of Santa Clara despite the difficulties to do so.

“Our role right now is to try to provide fun things to students and it doesn’t matter what the attendance is like because even if it’s only 5 people, you know they appreciated it and that it meant something to them,” said Inman.
Right now, clubs don’t have the options of incentivizing successful events with snacks or in-person bonding. The natural draws are gone and replaced by goals, conversations, and uncomfortable truths that have been pushed to the side in the past years. The remaining sentiment seems to be not one about hiking, concerts, or fun events, but finding a way to show up for each other.