Empty bleachers during a timeout of a Cougars’ basketball game.
Photo by Taylor Saugstad/Cuestonian

By Chris Bremer
Copy Editor/Online Editor

School spirit dies with a whimper, and at this point, a whimper would be a massive improvement for Cuesta.

But don’t just take my word for it, go and attend any swimmeet here at Cuesta and I can promise you that there will be more empty bleachers than total supporters. Cuesta has some of the lowest student involvement of any community college in the tri-county area – and it passes from generation to generation.

It is not only the size of crowds that leads one to believe Cuesta has atrocious student involvement.

Cuesta’s student government only allows students to vote for two positions in their government, despite other colleges on the Central Coast at least tripling that number. Regardless, not a single student was interested in the Associated Students of Cuesta College’s vice president position and literally only one person applied to be the president.

That is terrible! Especially considering that Allan Hancock has a smaller population than Cuesta and yet each year elects 14 positions.

This has led to frustration from the ASCC, citing Cuesta’s low student involvement as one of the reasons the student government has been ineffective, according to former ASCC president, Michael Constable.

I have seen with my own two eyes visiting teams bringing larger crowds than us at Cuesta’s own home games! It is demoralizing and it is embarrassing.

What’s worse is that the success of the sport teams seems to play no factor. Even the cross country team (who finished their season with two athletes winning state) had little to no audience.

The bottom line is that Cuesta College’s low student involvement is self perpetuating. By students generally being disinterested in the school and the extracurriculars it has to offer, Cuesta students are setting the general vibe of the school. This is easily picked up on by the thousands of incoming students attending college for the first time in their lives.

Cuesta will only get better if students take more pride in their community college. Events will be fun to attend when excited fans show up to support the Cougars, games will be more enthralling by the momentum of the crowds and student government would have the ability to make recognizable and productive differences for Cuesta student life.

Now I know what you’re thinking:

“I’m not stoked to be here – this college isn’t anyone’s dream – and frankly, I’m here to figure out what the hell I’m doing with my life. Excuse me if I don’t have time to watch our volleyball team lose.”

And honestly I completely agree with that assessment. Unfortunately, a school full of people like me would endanger the survival of that university.

Nevertheless, the only ones with the power to improve the atmosphere and representation here on campus are the students, and they will need to get involved to make that happen.

I’ll be doing my part this fall 2017 semester, attending my first sporting event at a college hundreds of miles away that has some semblance of school pride.