Being known as a commuter campus isn’t the most inspiring reputation for a university to have. Students at Sacramento State, to a certain extent, go to class and leave campus as soon as possible, not getting involved in anything other than traffic.

This semester, however, students are sticking around more and adding to a better environment on campus.

“I’ve gotten more calls than ever from groups on campus. People are coming on to campus wanting to get involved,” said Misty Garcia, administrative analyst for Sac State’s Community Engagement Center.

Groups based both on and off campus have been showing up to get involved more than ever before.

“Our Halloween event filled up in three days; our Meals on Wheels event filled up in one,” Garcia said.

Even though the CEC has gotten slightly fewer less people signing up than they have in the past, more people are showing up when it counts to help out the community.

From September to October of last year, 227 people signed up to volunteer, while 198 people did in the same period this year.

Combining summer and fall events, last year there were 97 volunteers who contributed more than 402 hours. This year there have been 175 volunteers who have given 774 hours of service.

Organizing events is a time-consuming job, but with so many willing to help out, hopefully the demand will increase the amount of events people can get involved in.

While volunteering is a positive way to meet like-minded people, cheering on the home team is a good way to mingle and give Sac State athletes more of a home field advantage. Even though the season is ending in disappointment after such an encouraging upset victory in their first game, more people are still going to root for the football team.

No home games had an attendance of 10,000 in 2010, a total surpassed in two out of the three home games so far. There have already been more than 8,500 people in the stands this season through three games compared to last year’s first three games.

Attendance at both men’s and women’s soccer as well as volleyball is unsurprisingly much smaller than football, but has seen an increase in the crowd size of about 10 percent. Men’s and women’s soccer are coming off seasons where both made it to the NCAA College Cup tournaments, generating more excitement about the teams.

The most important thing students have done this year was give up a part of themselves and it has paid off more than ever before.

Sac State defeated UC Davis in the Causeway Classic Blood drive for the first time in the four-year rivalry, winning 1,800 to 1,778. Sac State squeezing by a mere 22-pint margin shows every volunteer really does count and encouraging others to give gets results.

Last year Sac State donated 1,747 pints, just 53 less than the previous year, but enough to win well-deserved bragging rights.

“Sac State came out and showed a lot of school pride,” said Vicki Wolfe, communications manager for BloodSource. “The public relations class has always stepped up and promoted the drive.”

Whether it be excitement about successful teams or word of mouth about opportunities to help others, it is encouraging to see students slowly but surely help shed the commuter campus label through their participation. Sac State has the potential to be as visible and productive as any other college and it will only become more apparent as we become more active.

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