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As the Ateneo community enters another online school year, the memory of on-site life seems to be getting hazier to the students. This change of setting has rendered the student body nostalgic and curious about campus life as evidenced in viral sentimental posts offering glimpses of what Ateneo used to be.
Nonetheless, campus culture can still be found online. Although the image of the campus may seem blurry, it’s no doubt that the University’s doors are still open and welcoming towards students from different walks of life.
Making home their own
The transition of the campus into the online setting hasn’t been the smoothest for upperclassmen. Nowadays, most are wondering what exactly a positive college experience means since students haven’t stepped inside classrooms in over a year. Fortunately, there are a number of students who still believe that the Atenean experience isn’t just rooted in the physical campus but rather in interactions with fellow Ateneans.
Given the current setup, one of the many opportunities for socializing in the Ateneo community is through the vibrant organizations. Anya Abellanoza (4 BS MIS-MSCS) echoes this by expressing how Ateneans manage to connect with one another in any setting, especially through organizational projects.
With organizations transitioning to virtual activities, Abellanoza recalls the experience of collegiate theatre under the Performing Arts Cluster. Each person involved in a theatre production has a different major and set of skills, yet such students still manage to come together and create an outstanding performance online.
“I just love Ateneo so much for how lively its org culture is, and how it’s still alive until now,” she says. “You can tell that a lot of the organizations are really adjusting to the online setting.”
While the upperclassmen are trying to redefine student life in the new set-up, the freshmen and sophomores are still trying to make sense of what campus culture means to them now. For irregular student Kristine Torrente (1 AB COM), much of what she knows about Ateneo was learned through upperclassmen and social media. “I follow Ateneo meme pages on Facebook […] You grow to understand the culture through [these pages],” she shares.
Besides following meme pages of the past, Torrente has also noted new aspects of Ateneo culture emerging with the current setting. She mentions online Freedom Wall pages and the tendency to hype up fellow students on social media platforms as examples.
This new side of campus culture recreates the feeling of togetherness that Ateneans once experienced on campus. On-site, it would be much easier to immerse younger batches into the culture because they were physically present. Students use social media as a substitute for that now, whether it be through empathizing with anonymous posts or laughing along with popular Atenean memes and references.
Stepping onto the virtual campus
Even though students share the digital space, there is not much that can be done to unite them behind their computer screens. The shift to the online setting has surfaced feelings of isolation, which are mostly evident for upperclassmen who experienced physical campus life. For Luigi San Miguel (3 AB DS), physical interaction is what he misses most about campus culture since it was the biggest highlight of his brief freshman year on-site.
“It gets lonely sometimes because we don’t really have other opportunities to work with other people besides communication platforms,” San Miguel explains.
Abellanoza also yearns for aspects of campus culture that are unique to the context of being on campus. One of her favorite on-site events was Matteo Up All Night, wherein the Sanggunian and Rizal Library opened Matteo Ricci’s second floor 24/7 to students during finals week.
With memories of studying late into the night with fellow students, sharing free instant coffee, and bringing pillows on-site, she loves how the campus created a pocket of productivity every finals week. Although students can still study together through video calls, the sense of togetherness cultivated in a physical space cannot be imitated virtually.
Socializing online can get exhausting in the long run, Torrente mentions. Interacting with a new classmate could be as simple as liking or commenting on one another’s posts, but deepening these friendships has proven to be difficult.
Torrente shares that it gets draining to converse with other people due to the amount of effort it takes to chat with multiple people at the same time. Joining video calls can be just as arduous since weak internet bandwidth keeps people from conversing smoothly. Thus, a lot of Ateneans like Torrente have been hesitant to join bonding initiatives due to the drawbacks it presents.
Easing into place
Despite the struggle in adjusting to the times, students are still making the effort to shape campus experiences that are as authentic and fruitful as they can be. Whether through joining online communities, getting involved in student organizations, or imparting wisdom for Ateneans old and new, it’s clear that campus culture is primarily molded by the students.
San Miguel divulges that one of the few good things to come out of the online learning experience is that students have become more resourceful. Many have found the means to maintain connections and grow friendships despite the distance.
“Considering that a lot of people—including myself—miss onsite classes and the physical interaction, […] we’re really dipping our toes into different communication platforms to try to interact with people as much as possible,” San Miguel notes.
Torrente cannot say much about what the community had been like prior to the current set-up. She notes, however, that the Ateneo community has definitely been welcoming. The orientation seminars and programs that the upperclassmen have prepared for freshmen made her feel that she belonged to the community. “The upperclassmen I’ve met […] honestly helped relieve some apprehensions I had about college in general,” she remarks.
As a senior who is welcoming to fellow students, Abellanoza emphasizes that friendships greatly help Ateneans balance work and play, since students can experience burnout in any learning environment with a heavy load of requirements. In a similar fashion, connecting with others remains an important part of one’s personal life. Coming from her own challenges, she realized that ‘hustle culture’ was easier to get caught up in during the face-to-face setup. “I think, now, we have a magnifying glass on how our personal lives are,” she adds. “Always open your heart and mind to new experiences.”
With such sentiments, Abellanoza cultivates meaningful friendships in the online setup. Through classes and organizations alike, she uses online interactions as opportunities to build support systems and impart wisdom as a senior. She notes that Ateneans are skilled in several areas but have to set boundaries between work and play.
“Get that bread, but bread also needs time to rest before you bake it. You are [just] like bread […] You also have time to make layers. If you are a croissant, you have to fold dough a lot of times to get layers,” she quips.
Moving forward, she hopes that Ateneans find new opportunities for personal growth within the online learning environment. Building connections with fellow students reveals how community is at the core of campus culture, and it is ultimately up to us to continue making the most out of our Ateneo journey.
