The California University Recreational Services Department is trying to keep kids actively competitive during remote times.

Being put on remote forced some students into home situations that were less than appealing. Recreational services offer a trivia night every Thursday night so that students can have an outlet to build more relationships with students, alumni, and faculty says Jamison Roth, the Director of Recreational Services.

Director Ryan Barnhart of the Office of Alumni Services and Roth work closely together to provide opportunities to the students for those new relationships.

Both Barnhart and Roth agree that there is “…importance of engagement with students and the alumni, and [we] wanted to deliver a unique Cal U themed trivia night.”

On Oct. 7, they had a trivia night collaboration with the Office of Alumni Services and Barnhart.

Keeping a socially safe distance, a few students along with Roth and Barnhart joined into a Facebook Live and conducted the Cal U homecoming themed trivia.

The goal was to keep “…a Cal U theme, with questions that spanned different eras of Cal U, from its founding up until our current time,” said Barnhart.

On Thursday nights, trivia opens live around either 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. The students and alumni join in via Facebook or Zoom and join the Kahoot game. Later nights allow more time for involvement, classes are usually out of session and other activities and meetings are usually held around 7 p.m. said, Roth.

Information for trivia night is broadcasted on the weekly announcements; but Roth said they focus mainly on social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

“I also have the emails to all club officers,” said Roth, “I tend to send emails the day of so that they can remind their clubs and groups to participate.”

The Student Activities Board at Cal U sponsors the event and donates an Amazon e-gift card to the winner of each trivia night.

The homecoming themed trivia seemed a bit difficult to Alania Christopher, Koryna McKinney, and Haley Allen, three junior students who cheer, participating. All being in agreeance, they believed this was challenging, for it was made to accommodate Alumni as well This was their second trivia night of the semester.

They all agreed that they will continue to participate in trivia night and encourage others to join because it is a good way to stay involved while being remote, a nice break from homework and schooling, and keeping a good relationship with friends.

However, Christopher, McKinney, and Allen did not hold back when giving feedback and what they hope to see in upcoming trivia nights.

Christopher hopes that they work on length based on topics. While McKinney would like to see more than one receiving a prize and maybe try to have the top three earn prizes.

Allen said she “…would like to see more than one repeated winner during the game so that more people get the opportunity.”

Seemingly so, Roth is open to suggestions, and Barnhart said they are already in the works of another collaboration.

“We are always looking for themes and suggestions,” said Roth, “students have been more than willing to give ideas and criticisms on what they could do better.”

Keeping students involved could bring in more participation and outreach to clubs. If participation keeps growing, Roth said he hopes to incorporate trivia night as a club activity at the Cal U Recreation Center permanently.