{"id":5757,"date":"2024-03-06T18:19:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T23:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=5757"},"modified":"2024-03-11T20:42:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T00:42:25","slug":"community-on-campus-built-by-students-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2024\/03\/community-on-campus-built-by-students-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Community on Campus: Built By Students, For Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Student
Student attendees and the BSA executive board at the club\u2019s first open-house event.<\/figcaption> Photo by Photo supplied by the Bengali Student Association of Hunter College<\/span><\/figure>\n

Student-led clubs have gotten creative in fostering a sense of community on Hunter College campus, a major commuter school.<\/p>\n

As the school welcomed<\/a> its largest incoming freshman class in Hunter\u2019s history in the fall of 2023, the majority of the students were commuters, according to the Student Affairs Department.<\/p>\n

Most students traveling from their homes from all over the surrounding boroughs and beyond want to get in and out of their classes as soon as possible to make their way home, get to work, or simply because they do not want to be on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the commuting aspect definitely impacts students\u2019 commitment to clubs,\u201d said Knitted Knockers President Yayin Ruan.<\/p>\n

Knitted Knockers<\/a>, a club that knits and crochets breast prosthetics and has partnered with local clinics to donate them to breast cancer survivors, needed to get creative to lure members.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s most successful event thus far has been the scavenger hunt they held in February 2023. Ruan said that the board noticed that \u201cstudents don\u2019t really want to commit to a club unless there are constant events with food and interesting activities,\u201d and were likely attracted to the event due to the free prizes.<\/p>\n

This is not easy to get done as student leaders need to \u201cjump through several hoops\u201d to get an event done on campus, said Ruan. Student leaders may also have a hard time providing food for club members as \u201ca lot of vendors surrounding Hunter College don\u2019t want to work with us [because] Hunter is slow at paying them back,\u201d said Ruan.<\/p>\n

While clubs can help students make friends on campus, \u201cmore professional clubs or service clubs have less friendly vibes [since] students are just here for their hours,\u201d said Ruan.<\/p>\n

As of the spring 2024 semester, there are currently 94 active clubs according to the Office of Student Activities, or OSA. Though OSA does not track specific club membership numbers, \u201ceach club is required to maintain a minimum of 10 members,\u201d said an OSA representative.<\/p>\n

Cultural clubs are some of the most popular on campus and often have members in the hundreds.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Students walk around Hunter.<\/figcaption> Photo by Sanjana Ahmed<\/span><\/figure>\n

The Bengali Student Organization<\/a>\u00a0at Hunter College has seen great success since it began in the fall of 2023. The club\u2019s purpose is to build a community for first-generation Bangladeshi students and those who want to learn more about their culture.<\/p>\n

The club garnered great support from the student body as they were launching with 70 to 80 attendees for small events, and 100 to 125 attendees for their larger events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that we put out events [on] social media does a great job at promoting our events,\u201d said club vice president Sumaiya Hossain. \u201cAs well as timing because we schedule our events for when most [students] are on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students were also drawn in out of sheer curiosity at times after just passing by since \u201ca lot of people will go, \u2018Oh, what\u2019s going on here,\u2019 and they\u2019ll get curious and they want to come in,\u201d said Hossain. \u201cThings like music and decorations really do catch people\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some, the clubs have fostered new relationships. \u201cIn my experience, they\u2019ve been really helpful in getting me to branch out of my major,\u201d said junior Raheem Sheikh.<\/p>\n

Sheikh said that as a Biological Science major, he was keen to pursue his other interests, like writing about science, when looking for clubs to join. \u201cA lot of my friends in my major aren\u2019t really interested in it so I was really excited to find the Society of Bioethics and Medicine at Hunter and talk to people with that common interest,\u201d said Sheikh, adding that the club has an ongoing blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for what attracts Sheikh and his friends to certain events, \u201cdefinitely free food helps,\u201d he laughed. He also prefers smaller, more intimate events to take the opportunity to sit down and chat with people rather than get caught up in the hectic rush that typically occurs at larger events.<\/p>\n

Though it can be difficult to build a community at a school like Hunter College, student leaders are up to the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big school so there are a lot of options for clubs to join,\u201d said Ruan. \u201cIf you can\u2019t find your niche, you could also make your own club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student-led clubs have gotten creative in fostering a sense of community on Hunter College campus, a major commuter school. As the school welcomed its largest incoming freshman class in Hunter\u2019s history in the fall of 2023, the majority of the students were commuters, according to the Student Affairs Department. Most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":5758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,324],"tags":[486,541,580,294,581,529],"class_list":["post-5757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-student-life","tag-cunystudents","tag-studentclubs","tag-bengali-student-association","tag-hunter-students","tag-knitted-knockers","tag-school-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5757"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5775,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions\/5775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}