Student involvement on campus has changed drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic, and fostering community is significantly more difficult.

Attendance at on-campus events varies, Associate Director for Student Involvement Christina Frankovic said. “Some events have been completely sold out with a waitlist, and others have only had a small handful of attendees,” Frankovic said.

Virtual events are receiving fluctuating attendance too; Frankovic said for some virtual club meetings, up to 60 students will attend, while other clubs report only “a few dedicated students” at each meeting.

Because arts and crafts programs have attracted more students, the Office for Student Involvement has made an effort to offer more of these types of events, according to Frankovic.

“The on-campus events don’t do much to cultivate community; it’s hard to do on a campus like this one.” Lily Carlisle, FCLC ’24

Putting on previously successful events has not been successful in getting all students involved in on-campus life and feeling the spirit of community. “I haven’t attended any events on campus,” Sophia Pellillo, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’24, said. “I’m transferring next year and have decided to not attend any events and don’t really see the point or want to get involved in campus life since I’m not staying.”

Fordham’s retention rate has been declining in recent years, and the incoming first-year class in the fall of 2020 was Fordham’s smallest entering class since 2013.

Students who are not transferring are also electing to not attend campus events. “The on-campus events don’t do much to cultivate community; it’s hard to do on a campus like this one,” Lily Carlisle, FCLC ’24, said. “The community here is built on friend groups rather than event gatherings, where most people are there for free things.”

Alyssa Witvoet, FCLC ’24, has attended several events on campus but does not feel that they have met many people through the events. Witvoet said they only go to events when there is free food or activities involved, or to support a friend who organized an event. “I go to less events now than I did last semester, because I don’t meet people much due to social distancing,” Witvoet said. “I don’t know what things were like pre-COVID, but I think COVID makes it much harder.”

This change in attendance seems to be largely due to COVID-19, where social distancing prevents overcrowded tables and socializing with other students. Students report previous years’ events as bustling, full and loud with hardly enough room for attendees.

Witvoet and Carlisle both expressed that they have felt a strong bond on their floor in McKeon Hall, thanks in part to their residential assistants (RAs). “My floor has a good sense of community, because of our RA, Marley,” Witvoet said. “She acts like our friend and is very chatty and friendly, and hosts more casual events.” Carlisle added that “Marley wants us to hang out and eat snacks, like a friend.”

Yusuf ElMenshawy, FCLC ’22, is the RA for floor 16 in McKeon Hall. He described efforts to organize events that would attract students to come. “As an RA I and every other member of student staff have been students before and a lot of the times we try and make programs that we would want to actually go to,” ElMenshawy said. “Along with Fordham’s guidance about what each event should be about, it’s more important to actually include parts of the event that are easy for people to see and say ‘I want to go to that.’”

“We are very much looking forward to continuing that through the end of this semester and into the fall when we’ll be able to support even more club programming back on campus.” Christina Frankovic, associate director for student involvement

Community building at Lincoln Center is largely centered around interactions and events put on in the comfort of a dorm hallway or lounge. ElMenshawy said that about one-half of a McKeon floor’s residents will come to community builder events, about 10 come to first-year events and about 30 come to the big late-night events, such as Saturday Night Live at McKeon Hall, to which the entire dorm was invited to attend. 

Frankovic is hopeful for the rest of the spring semester, as her office continues to plan events. 

“While things didn’t look the same, and realistically we likely could not reach all of the students we would have liked to, I think there were many students who were able to find connections and have meaningful experiences and maybe even a little bit of safe fun through it all,” Frankovic said. “We are very much looking forward to continuing that through the end of this semester and into the fall when we’ll be able to support even more club programming back on campus.”