By Andrea Mendez

Club Rush returned to Riverside City College’s campus for the first time since the pandemic forced all activities online.

The three-day event was held in a hybrid format to accommodate for those who are unvaccinated or unable to come onto campus.

Many were excited to be returning to campus.

“It feels great,” Amy Bartels, biology major at RCC, said. “I actually have never been on campus, this is my second year at RCC.”

She did, however, have some concerns over the promotion of Club Rush. Many of her classmates were not aware of the student-run event.

“I heard a lot of my classes did not know about it until the professors told them,” Bartels said.

Information on the hybrid event was spread by professors and through Associated Students of RCC’s Instagram account. The student government spent time organizing Club Rush and assisting clubs with member recruitment.

“This Club Rush was especially a lot of work,” Elisabeth Etchell, sociology major and an Inter-Club Council director said. “We put up an extra effort to help the clubs get on their feet. Clubs have really suffered last year since recruitment was really hard when it was online only.”

The pandemic affected many areas of all new and existing clubs and organizations operation wise.

“There has barely been any clubs,” Kayla Batchelor, English major and member of the SOC club said. “The whole in-person Club Rush is a stark contrast to what it was the previous spring semester.”

Clubs have changed how they operate by enforcing and following COVID-19 regulations such as implementing mask mandates, CLEARED4 daily pass checks and social distancing.

“We are going to mandate along with the school for the safety of others,” Phong Ngo, kinesiology major and member of the Asian Pacific Student Union, said. “We are going to try and have people six feet apart if possible with 10 or less members in our club location.”

Club funding is another area that has been slightly wavering due to the pandemic. While newer clubs have not been affected monetarily, it has still impacted their ability to fundraise for club events. Budgets are up in the air to be settled with for new clubs as they are to be further discussed with student government.

“I spoke with the ASRCC president and they said we could plan the whole year full of events and that it would be reviewed to see what can be done within the budget,” Carlos Alvarado, psychology major and member of the Asian Pacific Student Union said.

The student government does plan to have as many regular events as possible while following safety regulations on campus.

“We’re working on having as many of the regular events as possible, like a COVID-safe Halloween Town and Scare Week,” Etchells said. “We’re working on making sure we can have something for the community if that’s possible but also making sure that it’s safe.”

Clubs do plan to follow along with the scheduled events that ASRCC will be holding so as to not overlap.

“For now we are following ASRCC Halloween Town, and Week of Scare, and any other monthly event they plan,” Alvarado said.