It was almost four years ago and I was a nervous 18-year-old forced into the University of La Verne’s orientation weekend at Pilgrim Pines, the last place I wanted to be. I looked around and saw no one I knew, no familiar faces. Only the look of fear lit up in the expressions of other nervous freshmen. I slowly adjusted as the bus pulled into the Pilgrim Pines parking lot, knowing that at least the person sitting next to me would know me, and I felt relieved.
After camp and after I had settled into Brandt Hall, I was fully adjusted to my life as a ULV freshman and the nervous person I used to be was now involved on campus. I joined clubs and rushed for a fraternity. I felt as if things were going to change in such a good way for me. Although I was active on campus, I did absolutely horrible academically and after a while, I dropped out of La Verne in order to save my sanity.
After attending Citrus College for one year, I returned to La Verne last fall with the hopes that my involvement on campus would once again be what it was when I first attended the University. I soon found that living off campus did not give me an opportunity to be involved, not because I did not want to be, but because the meetings and functions for the clubs and fraternities were at night and on weekends when I was working. I thought initially it was just an inconvenience for me personally, but I have come to find that most of the commuting students feel the same way as I did, dejected and left out.
Suddenly I feel like the same scared 18-year-old again, without friends on campus and without social purpose.
The main problem is the students and their organizations who plan these meetings and events for clubs and fraternities. By scheduling night meetings and weekend events, the people who plan the events are — purposely or not — singling out those who live off campus and have to work to both pay for rent and stay in school.
This lack of inclusion of commuter students, in fact, is a ploy to keep all the organizations on campus closed to those who do not live on campus. That is separatism. With such a small campus community, it is so hard to rationalize why these organizations want to keep their membership so selective and political. In a free society like America the majority must be the ones who stand up, the majority should come together to solve problems and, most importantly, the majority must be represented at the highest levels.
What an ironic twist that the majority of students at ULV are commuters — more than 70 percent live off campus.
In my search of finding a reason for this deceptive separatism, I feel like an outsider and I should not. I am the sports editor of the Campus Times and a decent student, but I do not feel like I will be accepted into a club or fraternity because of my lack of time, with outside problems at work and paying bills getting in the way. Bills and work are all I have next to school. I know I am being productive and supporting myself and that is all that really matters to me.
I agree that I have not tried as hard as I could have in the past to become involved in on campus activities, but the fact is no one has stopped me or even welcomed me to get involved.
I hope in the future the University, which is a respectable institution, will have more commuter representation and more chances to ask those who are constantly driving back and forth from home to school to stay a while and enjoy the benefits of a great school.
Scott Harvey, a junior journalism major, is sports editor of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at harveys@ulv.edu.
