For many of us, COVID-19 is in the past; despite the variants, the cases, and the consequences that this brought to our society, we have been able to learn to live with it, and the most important thing, we accepted that some things will never be the same.

As we accepted that it would not be the same, California State University, East Bay, has tried hard to find ways to return to what once was expected. Tristan Garcia, Cal State East Bay advisor, had the flexibility to empathize with the setbacks that our school is facing.Tristan has been at East Bay for 11 years; most students know who she is since Tristan oversees GE, Units, and Major Advising.

Ever since the pandemic started, CSUEB has been in a hole and has not been able to dig itself back up. Tristan Garciac has noticed the increase in student population for the present year, which, according to her, has been a considerable change since the 2019-2020 school year. However, it differs from the levels counselors have used for our communications department.

As time has gone by, there is also a good. The last two graduation ceremonies were in person, and last year’s graduation ceremonies happened without restrictions. The increasing population of students is a reason to thank, value, and appreciate because of what CSUEB is known for, a commuter school, although more things need to be worked on.

The main problems addressed during an interview with Tristan Garcia explained East Bay’s need for more staffing, tackling the low enrollment, and easing frustration among students and faculty. According to Tristan, the issues have been more persistent due to the inflation in housing for our area.

“Our school’s main problem is that many students have decided to live off campus and returned to [Southern California] or other parts of the state due to the expensive cost of living in the Bay Area for which our students needed to work full time and study full time, which, in the end, affects the academic performance of the student.” -Tristan Garcia (Advisor at East Bay)

Our advisor, Tristan, shared that the main concern students are currently facing is the lack of Financial Aid support, over the last couple of years, many students have not been able to get grants due to FAFSA’s requirements. Many CSUEB students are first-generation students and members from our East Bay community. In the long run, the consequences of not easing the students aid support may hurt our school’s reputation, taking loans can be a quick fix but it may lead to other concern down the line, and student’s performance may be jeopardized. 

Our staff understands that not everything can be perfect, and our staff tries to give their best with the tools and resources they have available. However, we know that things may or may never be the same. Every department in our school acts to the best of their abilities. Only time will tell if everything we knew before will be what we still knew before. In the meantime, we must abide by our conditions and appreciate the daily effort of our university’s staff.