As violin music hummed through the trees of Sycamore Glen, students from the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture (CSLC) Association gathered to discuss literature about boredom and their experiences with it. This monthly symposium was the latest of many events the CSLC Association has put on since its founding in January 2023, according to co-founder Beatrice Frum* (junior).
Frum, along with Peter Charkalis (junior), said they formed the association after realizing there were few spaces for students to discuss literature and philosophy outside of the classroom.
“We wanted to have a space for students to talk about classic big college ideas,” Charkalis said. “There wasn’t really a space for these sorts of conversations before.”
Frum said that she enjoyed talking to CSLC students but realized they didn’t have a space to come together.
“Originally, I just wanted to do something where we could meet once a month and chat, and then it kind of grew out of itself,” Frum said.
Anna Forman (junior) attended the symposium on boredom and said she felt it was a place for CSLC students to connect.
“I love the symposium because I think it’s a great place for people to get together and just talk about interesting stuff and bond,” Forman said. “The conversations always go off into different directions, and I think we all feel closer and happier at the end.”
The association organizes many different types of events, which are open to all students, not just CSLC majors. Last May, they held a book exchange and picnic, according to Frum, and earlier this semester, Charkalis said the association held a symposium on love. The association has also planned an open mic night at the Green Bean and will hold a movie night at Choi Auditorium later this month.
Daniel Antonson (junior), said via email that he coordinates events for the association alongside Frum. Antonson said the association tries to hold regular meetings in addition to larger events like movie nights.
“We’ve been holding (semi) weekly meetups for anyone interested in CSLC, literature, languages, theory or random thoughts that have been plaguing them recently,” Antonson said via email.
Frum said that having events that range in size helps the association be a bigger part of a student’s CSLC experience.
“It became more of a student association, rather than one little club because we saw from the beginning that we wanted to be able to do a wide range of events and be a bigger presence for the department,” Frum said.
Frum said there has been increasing attendance from students interested in the CSLC major.
“What has been different about this semester is we’ve had a lot more freshmen come that are prospective CSLC majors,” Frum said. “So we’re slowly bringing them into the department, which has been a lot of fun.”
However, Charkalis said via email that, despite increasing awareness of the association, it’s still mostly students who are already studying CSLC who attend the events. For those students, Frum said the meetings are helpful in improving their understanding of the material covered in class, as the discussions encourage the students to think critically about ideas rather than simply regurgitate them.
Eran Karmon (sophomore) is a prospective CSLC major who attended the symposium on boredom. He said it helped him apply material he’d learned in his CSLC class to his own life.
“It felt like we were applying all of the principles that we learned about in class to more of a community feeling and outside conversation,” Karmon said.
While the association initially faced some challenges when it was founded, according to Frum and Charkalis, they have been able to show funding groups like ASOC that it has real value on campus. According to Frum, the association turned to rasing funds by selling poems on the Academic Quad during this early period.
“I used the library printers to print out poems, and we were great salesmen, so that was really fun,” Frum said. “That was a highlight in our club history.”
Now, with more visibility and awareness about the association’s purpose, Frum said that they’re more easily able to get funding through traditional routes like ASOC.
“Towards the end of last semester, when we went in, we actually had tangible things to show to them, and we got a lot of funding for our end-of-year event,” Frum said.
This semester, Charkalis said students from all areas of study have been attending events, which is a change from last year.
“Last semester, we were smaller and more insular, which was great because our initial goal was to foster more community amongst the majors and minors,” Charkalis said.
With students who are not studying CSLC now attending events, Charkalis said they want to support the growth in attendance while trying to ensure the events are still primarily places for CSLC students. Frum said this balance can be tricky to achieve.
“I think our goal for this semester was to have more visibility on campus by allowing more people to come. And then next semester maybe we’ll become more insular again, once our name is out there.” Frum said.
Frum and Charkalis said that, in the future, they would like to hear more from students about what events they’d like to see the association plan.
“If a CSLC student wants to do something, we would be the first place that they would go to, to help them learn something,” Frum said.
Contact Ruby Gower at gower@oxy.edu
*Beatrice Frum is a former writer for The Occidental.
