Not a single **** was given this day

4 out of 5 students at Yuba Community College are here to get their classes done and get the heck out. Sounds like you?

Yuba Community College is a 2-year institution that offers students low-cost, college-level courses, degrees and certificates. This all sounds normal for any city college, but is that really everything?

In the spring of 2012, I wrote an article about student apathy on this campus, and since then not much has changed. In fact, knowing that we have less students this time around could mean less involvement in extracurricular activities. At the start of this semester there were a total of 7,913 students registered for classes, compared to the 8,318 students a year ago. While it isn’t a large difference, it’s still a decrease nonetheless.

As it turns out, students simply don’t care too much around here.

And I’ve been on a mission to find out why. But before we dig through that unmined ore of disinterest, let’s look over some of the things happening on campus that students are missing out on.

Most academic institutions have a sports team, and Yuba College has quite a few of them. Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and volleyball; all parts of this community and all involving your fellow colleagues. But it is embarrassing to find that many, if not all, of their games are being missed by the registered students of this campus. And for what the reason? Inconvenient time? Not into sports? Some students even say they’ll just read about it later. But do they?

And of course, no school would dare fly their colors without accompanying music. Yuba College has its own Symphonic band, as well as a Jazz ensemble. The best part about their performances is that they are free to the public. That leaves no excuse not to check out their tunes. No, really.

There are also quite a few clubs on this campus, albeit they are not as promoting as some of the ones you find in high schools. It’s a two-way street around here. Meaning, don’t expect them to come to you, and instead go find them. To name a few there’s the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), the Christians in Action, the Punjabi Association, the Photo Guild, and Roteract.

Now I don’t want to sound like an advocate here, but there’s also a student newspaper team that has more than enough room for help. And it also offers transferable units for Mass Communications or English.

All of these extracurricular activities sound interesting, don’t you think? And I tell you what, I take time away from my own activities to check them out. Why don’t you? Of course, I don’t make it to everything, but my excuses are associated to my duty of making sure everyone else is aware.

So let’s go ahead and unmine that ore, so that we all can open up and share the idea of school spirit. Your friends and colleagues are out there doing what they enjoy, and you should be a part of it. By no means am I asking you to participate. But you should at least try being a spectator.