By Michelle Loria Alvarado
Contributor
A TikTok video documenting the lives of commuter students on campus has more than 18,000 views.
The “of course” TikTok trend consists of filling in the blank “I’m a ______, of course I ____,” with quirks related to a person’s profession, job, vocation, or lifestyle that make others feel identified.
The Trevecca Commuter Council, a student group, published a TikTok video that followed this trend but with commuter’s quirks. They exposed common things commuters do and experience.
However, they were not expecting the response it received.
“I think we were just mainly aiming at some of the commuters that we have at Trevecca and basically just letting everyone feel identified and you know ‘you’re being heard,” said Daniela Andret, commuter council co-vice president.
Some of the statements included commuters carrying heavy backpacks, scheduling classes back to back, leaving as soon as class ends, spending two to three hours a day driving, taking naps between classes in their cars, and disliking 8 a.m. classes.
“We were just like, let’s just have fun, but we were surprised when a lot of people were reposting the video,” said Gabby Colorado, commuter council social media coordinator.
The video currently has 18,000 views on TikTok and multiple comments from commuters who say they feel seen and heard.
“Oh, I thought it was so funny. It was so relatable because I have an 8 a.m. this semester,” said Norlig Castro, a junior majoring in communication studies.
Castro commutes from Murfreesboro and what usually is a 30-minute’ drive, can be a struggle because of traffic.
“Today, it was an hour and eight minutes to get to school and I left 20 minutes early. So I left at 7:40 a.m. and I got to school at 8:57 a.m.,” said Castro.
One of the biggest issues commuters experience is the lack of engagement they have on campus.
“We are commuters, of course, we don’t get the full college experience,” said Colorado in the video.
Most commuters leave campus right after class and many of Trevecca’s events occur later in the evening, which hinders commuters from getting involved, said Andret.
When events happen later at night, it is difficult for commuters to stay around from three to five hours without having a place to go or something to do, neither go home and go back to campus later.
“We try to figure something out that the Commuter Council can do in between those [gaps] to give the commuter students something to do so they’re not just hanging out the whole time,” said Zack Church, resident director, “Also talking to social life, about making sure that some events happen earlier, like club rush. We make sure that that happens earlier in the daytime when yes, a lot of students are still in class but then it’s more accessible to commuting students as well because it’s just as important for them to get involved with campus life.”
SGA started to promote and schedule their events earlier so commuters can attend. An example of these efforts happened on Feb. 8 at 4:30 p.m. during the Tennessee Tailgate Trojan table, which was planned earlier in the day so commuters would attend, said Colorado.
This TikTok video was a way for the commuter council to tell commuters that they are heard, as well as communicate to the rest of the student body the things they experience.
“You’re welcome here and I know it’s hard for commuters to actually have a social life in school, but we are thinking about you and we are working to make you feel included,” said Colorado.
