The campus social experience from a commuter student and a live-on-campus student

Two students, one commuting and one living on campus, share what it has been like making friends on campus this year.

UW Tacoma is known for its high population of commuting students and most are not aware of the opportunity to live on campus. Many students have suffered socially and The Ledger was able to speak with some amazing students about their experiences so far.

Eleni (Ah-lenny) Theodoropoulos flew all the way from Chicago, Illinois to attend UW Tacoma. Eleni is a hardworking student who loves to be social. Eleni hosts get-togethers, spends time at the Student Y center, and cooks amazing Greek food. As a first-year student living at Court 17, Eleni was asked to share her experience with The Ledger and how she feels about living on campus. 

She says that, “Making friends was hard and easy at the same time. For me it was easy in a sense that I am extroverted so I enjoy meeting and talking to new people. What made it hard was me going to most of the social events but not a lot of people go so it was hard to make friends there. I feel if more people lived on campus, our school would do so well or if we had a better way of getting the word out about social events.” Eleni has gotten to experience making friends, experiencing the campus day and night, and living away from home. 

First-year student Jenny Jiang opened up to The Ledger on her experience as a commuting student from University Place, Washington. Jenny is a hardworking, outgoing student who loves to make new friends. If she is not studying she is probably crafting, reading a good book, or completing a board game. Jenny was asked to share her struggles of creating a social life on campus.

Jenny says that, “Making friends on campus does require a little bit of an effort. Reasons being that [UW Tacoma] is a commuter college therefore there really isn’t much you can rely on to make friends besides attending class, and even so people really just want to be in and out of class. Yet, with the COVID currently being active it really destroys the main gateway to communicate with different peers.”

All in all, students all over campus are finding it difficult to create a social life for themselves. The previous two years for students all over the world have been emotional, chaotic, and unfortunate. Currently, the Court 17 apartments are housing students at 50% reduced capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Allegedly, The Court 17 apartments are looking forward to opening up to 100% capacity to start the next 2022-23 school year. Students currently living off campus are strongly recommended to apply.