The Commuting Students Association (CSA) is hosting its annual Commuter Week from Monday, March 22 to Friday, March 26.

Commuter Week is a week of programs and events held at commuter-accessible times so that both residents and commuting students can enjoy a variety of fun programs. This year’s theme is “Fordham Fairytale.” Patricia Santos, FCRH ’22, executive class programmer for CSA, said the executive board was inspired by the “Under the Sea-s-a” theme of CSA’s fall event, Thanks-Give-Away. 

“Every year we try to be really creative with our Commuter Week theme, and we were really inspired by TGA,” said Santos. “We wanted to do something creative and we just thought of doing Fairytales because we felt it was a broad theme where you could incorporate a lot of events, like Aladdin and Alice and Wonderland.”

Each event has a different fairytale-inspired theme. Monday’s event was called “Fordham Wonderland” and featured a giant chess match and the option for attendants to stuff their own plush rabbit. On Tuesday, attendants visited “Emerald City at Eddie’s,” a Wizard of Oz themed event featuring a bungee run. 

Wednesday’s event will be the Aladdin inspired “A Whole New Commuter World,” boasting an interactive virtual reality set and Middle Eastern cuisine. A Willy Wonka themed event called “CSA’s Chocolate Factory” will be available on Thursday, and to close out the week, CSA will host a Harry Potter themed program called “Wizardry at Rosewartz” on Friday. Free t-shirts will also be given out at all events.

This Commuter Week looks different from those in the past, as it is the first one held during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Last year’s Commuter Week took place just before students were sent home to complete the rest of the semester virtually in March.

Santos said the ongoing pandemic presented a challenge for CSA. “Because of COVID, it definitely was our Commuter Week where we had to implement COVID guidelines and things like that, so it was a little bit harder, but we obviously try to work around that,” said Santos. “It was definitely different but we made it work.”

Giselle Bravo Brown, FCRH ’22, marketing coordinator for CSA, said that one of the major changes to this year’s Commuter Week is that each event will also have a virtual component for students who are taking their classes virtually or cannot come to campus.

“We never really do virtual events and we didn’t really know how they worked and what we would do, but all of our boards have been great about that and come up with really nice ideas,” said Bravo Brown. Some of the virtual events include a painting night over Zoom, a virtual chess night and a Kahoot game. 

The in-person events will also look slightly different in order to comply with COVID-19 guidelines in place at Fordham. Foods are all pre-packaged and students have to maintain social distancing at all in-person events, said Santos. Certain events will be held outside, which is also a first for Commuter Week.

Despite the changes, Bravo Brown said she hopes that the fairytale theme of this year’s Commuter Week will serve as a way for students to try and forget about their stresses and have fun. 

“We wanted something that was kind of like an ‘escape reality’ type of thing to have a distraction from what’s happening everywhere,” she said.

Santos said she also hopes the fact that Commuter Week is after midterms means it will be a way for students to relax. “We felt like this would be a great time to rewind and connect with students and just enjoy yourself,” she said. “We love the theme and feel like it’s a great way for students to connect with each other and disconnect from reality.”

While Commuter Week is open to all students and faculty, Bravo Brown said she hoped this week would be a way for commuters especially to connect with friends and enjoy time back on campus.

“I’m glad Fordham gives the commuters this week of activities because obviously we cater mostly towards commuters and I think a lot of commuters haven’t been coming to campus because they don’t really need to,” said Bravo Brown. “I think it’s a good idea for them to reconnect.”