Hey Cal! What Cal Students Are Up to This Valentine’s Season
4 min read
The University of California at Berkeley has long been known as a campus where many students are focused solely on their studies and not any nonacademic extracurricular activities, including romance.
This week I have decided to dive deep into the heart of the university’s campus at Sproul Plaza and do some digging into Valentine’s weekend activities. Willing participants were asked the simple question: “Are you locked-in this weekend?”
“What are you locked-in on? On your books or your ‘Bae’?” I frequently asked, and received some answers that suggest the stereotypes about the habits of Berkeleyans to be generally untrue.
Daniel tabling on Sproul. Photo courtesy of Mark North.
The Final Tally
46 Votes for Locked-in on Life
41 Votes for Locked-in on Love
Generally, the pattern suggests that students are more focused on their studies than significant others. However, many of the voters for the latter also claimed they will be locked-in on the books this weekend
Berkeley Students Can Play Hard and Work Even Harder.
This idea represents something so huge in the mindsets of many Berkeley students: their ability to separate their studies from their daily lives while maintaining a commitment to both equally.
Naturally, there is a higher tendency for students who are in a relationship to feel inclined to vote, which is why on @theberkeleypulse’s Instagram we conducted a poll asking the same question.
The proportion of pollers on Instagram is almost identical to the proportion of my on-campus campaign; suggesting that most students are indeed “locked-in” on both.
The Inbetweeners.
This question, many times, yielded answers regarding complexity in the situation. Either unsure about the status of their “situationship” or unsure of the integrity of their academic diligence, students could not fit into the binary status of the question.
A significant number of around 15 voters also suggested that they had neither.
Although some answers registered as a self-deprecating dig, many students simply felt they needed a break.
“I’m going back home and I’m going to go with some of my friends to have a picnic,” one student said about their Valentine’s Day plans.
Writer’s thoughts.
Any answer simply represents another subset of students here at UC.
Some students feel overwhelmed with work and are simply seeking out a break and others are spending their time diving deeper into the books.
Each represents a drive within the student to better themselves and their communities through their work, and highlights a high standard of excellence among students.