Long Beach City College held its first in-person club fair since the campus shutdown due to COVID-19 on Feb. 16. An event that would normally have 50 clubs participating, only had five searching for future members.
The robust social life LBCC once had, now feels like a ghost town. The clubs that survived the campus shutdown claim that the pandemic, virtual meetings, and membership charter guidelines are the only reasons their clubs survived.
When the campus shutdown and everyone had to move to virtual meetings, clubs that were heavily activity oriented were the first to die out.
Clubs that survived the change to virtual meetings were able to stay chartered in Spring 2021.
However, those clubs that lacked members lost their legitimacy as a chartered club.
Kim Hammon, Student Activities Advisor, claims 16 clubs are chartered and additional 5-10 clubs are expected to be added on that list.
According to ASB guidelines in 2020-2021, clubs needed a minimum of 10 members to be charted as a legitimate organization.
Club PNK (Rho Nu Kappa) , a sorority oriented in academics and sisterhood, claimed they were able to stay qualified because they met these requirements.
ASB responded to these grievances and changed the criteria to five members. However, by that time it was too late for clubs like PNK.
“A lot of clubs are in the process of rebuilding.” Angela Blue said, alumnae for PNK ladies.
Clubs like the Fire Fighter Association have been brought back by students who weren’t even members before the pandemic, but found it necessary for this club to exist again.
Blake Yamamoto and Sebastian Guerra, restarted the Fire Fighter Association this semester. They were eagerly looking for new members to keep the torch going.
Social life on campus is steadily moving forward. All the school can offer is more outreach and hope that as pandemic becomes endemic, that more students are able to be comfortable with socializing in-person again.