Bringing communities together to celebrate the diversity on campus, that is what the Multicultural Organization and Club Alliance’s does.
Thursday, Feb. 21 was the MOCA student involvement fair where many of the clubs and organizations of color came together to table with each other and engage with the campus, showing their faces and hopefully bringing more students of color out to get involved in their groups.
“It started about three years ago by my predecessor,” said Junie Lee, who is the campus HUB advisor for campus clubs and organizations. “She was a white woman from Wisconsin who wanted to have a space for students, specifically students of color from clubs, to gather and hang out, talk about their issues if they have any, and just support one another. So it’s actually a discussion based support group.” Lee took over MOCA and expanded it into what it has become today, an interconnecting web of groups from different ethnic backgrounds, collaborating together to uplift the diversity on campus and possibly bring more students of color to Sonoma State University.
STAR // Christine von Raesfeld
Black Student Union Treasurer Gregory Thomas hands flyer to student Trevor Paige during the MOCA Tabling Fair on Thurs. 21, 2019
STAR // Christine von Raesfeld
Members of Lambda Sigma Gamma at the MOCA Tabling Fair.
“We weren’t really doing any events with the actual group and so I created the MOCA involvement fair which is this, because I wanted students of color to be out, front and center, tabling, and tabling together because there’s more power in community, than there is by yourself.” said Lee. “It’s just been a great way to be together.”
Clubs such as the Black Student Union, Queer Straight Alliance and Hillel tabled side by side, with information on their clubs, what they represent and merchandise for students to take.
There were also many multicultural sororities and fraternities that participated in MOCA as well, such as Sigma Omega Neu (SON) and Sigma Lambda Beta.
“[SON is] a Latina interest sorority. We’re fairly new on campus. We were established here in 2012 of April.” said Kathy Marie Griffith, president of SON and a senior business major.
“Personally it’s empowering. We have family here that supports each other no matter what.” said Griffith. “It doesn’t matter about letters. We want everyone here to feel comfortable.”
While SON is a newer sorority, the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity has more history.
“We were founded April 4, 1986 and since then we’ve been one of the fastest growing Latino multicultural based fraternities based in the United States.” said Felipe Ramirez, a member of Sigma Lambda Beta and a senior double majoring in global studies and spanish.
“[We] try to be here every time with MOCA and it’s really exciting because it also lets us know what other organizations there is out there and that we’re not the only one out here.” said Sigma Lambda Beta member David Mendoza, a fifth year double major in Chicano and Latino studies and Spanish.
Lee expects to see bigger and brighter things happening with MOCA, since every year more and more groups have come to be part of the alliance.
“Every single time I send out my sign up thing, clubs are always signed up. I think they want this community, they want the space, they want to be able to be together and they always come through.” said Lee.
More MOCA events can take place at Sonoma state, but it will take the student effort and involvement to move it forward.
“I really want it to organically come from the students. I’m hopeful that in the future there can be a conference, there can even be a retreat, but it has to come from the students.” said Lee.
