By Erica Scalise
Last week, students celebrated the Commuting Student Association’s (CSA) annual Commuter Week. The week long program of events was open to both commuters and residents under the theme of “Fordham-Opoly,” a play on the popular game Monopoly.
This year saw a turn out from students who received raffle prizes such as Starbucks and Amazon gift cards as well as free shirts, food and entertainment. The events provided the opportunity for both commuters and residents to socialize at commuter-friendly times.
Kaidya Adames, FCRH ’20, sophomore board president of CSA, said the organization made an effort to have all of its events at commuter-friendly times to encourage involvement.
“We tried to make all of our events at commuter-friendly times because other events on campus can go really late sometimes,” said Adames. “I know myself that I’ve wanted to get more involved on campus but it’s hard as a commuter when meeting times are so late.”
Last Thursday’s Big-Top Carnival had a mix of both student commuters and residents participating in various activities. Students mingled as they entered raffles and danced to music in the McGinley Ballroom for one of six events hosted by CSA for Commuter Week.
The carnival was equipped with a cotton candy machine, bounce house, make-your-own sand jar table and a cartoonist drawing student caricatures.
Other events included “A Blast from the Past,” a night filled with life-sized games and childhood throwbacks as well as “Ram’s Got Talent,” a showcase of ten acts selected through a prior audition process.
Nemesis Dipre, FCRH ’18, e-board president of CSA, said Commuter Week is CSA’s biggest spring event and took months of preparation.
“For the past academic year, Commuter Week has been either directly or indirectly on CSA’s mind,” said Dipre. “We started thinking of ideas for a theme in the fall and how we could execute that theme in a week. We have been in contact with vendors since February and have been designing our t-shirts since January.”
Along with each grade’s board and the e-board of CSA, Commuter Week 2018 was organized with help from the Office for Student Involvement (OSI). This includes Monique Dumaine, liaison and assistant director for leadership and commuter student services, Cathy Gonzalez, reservations coordinator and Stephen Clarke, assistant director for campus center operations. The campus center operations team as well as Fordham IT also worked to make the week of events possible.
Each of the events worked around the central message of making commuters feel at home at Fordham, according to Dipre.
“Any commuter will tell you about the divide between commuters and residents and the commuter culture,” said Dipre. “This year my goal was to begin to end all of that talk and have everyone see commuters as an important community.”
Both Dipre and Adames, who commute from the Bronx, were pleased to see residents and commuters brought together by the Commuter Week events.
“The majority of the people attending are commuters but I’ve seen some residents too and that makes me really happy,” said Adames. “There’s a gap between commuters and residents so it’s good that we have events where we can all come together and just have fun together.”
Dipre said her vision for Commuter Week was exceeded when she watched residents and commuters come together at “A Blast from the Past” game night.
“The best way to create a community is to break bread together and to enjoy the small things together,” said Dipre. “I love when I see people from all over the Fordham community come together at our events.”
In addition to major events such as Commuter Week, Adames said CSA continues to work on policies to improve everyday commuter and campus life through the Commuter Life Committee (CLC).
“The event turnout has been good this week,” said Adames. “We want commuters to have a good time at these events and feel supported every day at Fordham, not just this week.”
Dipre said for her, CSA is more than just another form of student government at Fordham. She said it is the only organization that continuously and consistently works to ensure commuters feel included on Fordham’s campus.
“We are 20 percent of the population and we are a diverse population,” said Dipre. “That alone should let commuters know they’re a vibrant and essential part of Fordham’s overall community.”
