Clubs try to revitalize inperson engagement after total return to campus

fatigue that comes with both the final stretch of the regular season and with final exams looming. Both the coaching staff and players recognize the challenges they face, but remain confident that the team can rally behind one

Readjusting to the resumption of in-person operations has created unique recruitment and leadership challenges for UTD student organizations and their leaders.

The number of registered student organizations at UTD has grown from 389 in 2019 to 428 in 2022. This semester, 39 new student organizations are having to figure out how to operate in-person, a daunting task for clubs that were created in and tailored to the virtual environment. Even older organizations are now led by a new generation of officers who have never experienced the in-person events they are now responsible for organizing.

The Student Organization Center recognizes that a lack of effective communication between old and current officers due to the pandemic and the demands of involving a new generation of students in club activities provide daunting tasks for student leaders.

Assistant Director of Student Organizations, Tineil Lewis-Moore, said that SOC organized many programs to help keep student organizations afloat through the pandemic. These included student organization member spotlights on social media, president’s roundtable discussions- on topics ranging from how to engage organization members virtually to hosting events in a virtual world- and virtual involvement fairs. In the same vein, they are now helping organizations and their new leaders effectively transition back to in-person activities.

“Some of the challenges that have been shared with us regarding the student organizations have been internal organization conflict and new organization officers navigating their roles as officer while transitioning from virtual back to in-person events and activities,” Lewis-Moore said.

Conflict can occur when officers accustomed to different modalities have different visions of what an organization should look like. Officers who were on-boarded virtually at the beginning of this year may not have a full grasp of how their clubs are meant to function in-person, for example. To address these issues, the SOC office is hosting Organization Transition Month throughout April. There will be a series of weekly workshops for student leaders led by SOC staff on conflict resolution, managing an officer transition and revising an organization’s

After matching up against University of California-Irvine in the first round, the team had to start in the loser’s bracket from the get-go. After running through the loser’s bracket to get to the top eight, main tank and CS junior Luey “Lueyyy” Salinas said that the matchup against Savannah College of Art and Design was an even matchup that led to an unfortunate loss.

“It’s hard to feel motivated and want to grind when ranked is not as good as it used to be. The competition’s not as good as it used to be. There’s not as many players playing, not as much competition, it’s hard just in general to be as motivated and to have that grind mentality,” Salinas said.

Salinas

“I really think any other day we could’ve beaten them too, just we didn’t play our best and we didn’t play the [team] comps that we probably could have beaten them on,” Salinas said. “I was hoping that maybe we can at least secure top six or top four. I think we could have easily done it. Another day I think we could have done it.”

Some issues leading up to the play in the Overwatch Collegiate Championship include the LAN experience played just the previous weekend, with a combination of poor connection and long play hours creating a draining experience for players on their last regular season matches before the playoffs.

“Our first match in the LAN, we literally could not even tell what was happening … We would just go into them and then nobody would know where we were at; we couldn’t tell,” Salinas said. “We were just playing back to back to back to back for five or six hours. And we didn’t have food, either.”

On top of that, “Overwatch” is dying. A unique concept to esports is that the potential for a game to die out competitively is relatively high in comparison to physical sports. Soccer is not likely to receive a massive game rule change that kills interest in the game,

And alongside “Overwatch,” Salinas is considering quitting competitive play as well. After being a mainstay on the team for three years, classes and life outside of the game has cut into his time to play more “Overwatch.”

“My freshman year I came in swinging and motivated and I was grinding a lot because I didn't really have a lot of other obligations and then, you know, COVID hit. Everything went online. So, I was just grinding Overwatch all the time,” Salinas said. “I really grew more a as a team player and I’ve learned so much, but I feel that because I have so much more on my plate … I’m a lot more busy, so I don’t have that time and opportunity to grind as I used to, so I feel like I’m not as good as I used to be.”

In the last few months of the semester, there are two more playoffs brackets that the team will be playing in, the NACE Starleague and the NECC playoffs. With the impending arrival of “Overwatch 2,” the team is still looking to top the last few events that they can. For Salinas, though he may retire as “Overwatch 1” does, he’ll take the experience of playing with him long afterwards.

“This year I really felt like I was playing with a family more than anything. And we really grew close, not only as a team, but as friends. And I think that’s something I will cherish if I decide to retire after all. And I will remember all the memories we’ve made even within the game and outside the game… it’s been a hell of a ride for sure,” Salinas said.