As a friend and I strolled down Library Walk last week, a man in a leather jacket materialized out of the shadows and asked if we were Jewish (I haven’t been clocked so quickly and efficiently since a Hasid gave me a free box of matzah on Passover). When we told him that we were, he gave each of us a fraternity business card — maybe the fraternity is Jewish, or maybe that’s just the way he starts all conversations — and asked where we were from. “The Bay,” my friend said, prompting our would-be brother to launch into an impassioned explanation of why the Bay Area is an awful place and should be avoided at all costs. He then vanished back into the crowd as quickly as he’d appeared. 

This was, of course, the best sales pitch I’d ever heard — the most valuable part of marketing is confidence, and my God, does it take confidence to approach a random person, ask if they’re a Jew, insult their hometown, and leave. 

Passing through Library Walk, the unofficial center of UC San Diego’s campus, is a fundamental and unavoidable experience for any student here. Library Walk places us in close contact with a random cross-section of UCSD’s student body – sometimes, closer than one might like. Every day, someone is trying to get you to join something, do something: find God, build a robot, end racism, start racism, save the turtles, talk about anime, play League of Legends, or rush Pike. For better or worse, accosting people on Library Walk is essential to being a relevant organization at UCSD; Library Walk is the busiest spot on campus and, therefore, the place with the highest potential for recruitment. 

But as a campus center, it’s something of an unusual one. Firstly, it’s a liminal space — a place that’s meant to be passed through and not stayed in. This means that everyone passing through Library Walk has somewhere else to be, which can make for some foul-tempered people who only see you as an obstacle in their journey across campus. Even if they’re not angry at you for trying to speak to them, most would prefer to just be on their way and not stop to engage with anything. At that point, simply getting people to stop and talk becomes a challenge. 

Organizations try to address this problem in a number of ways. It’s not uncommon to see organizations trying to grab people’s attention with food: donuts, pizza, tacos, as long as you stop and listen to their sales pitch. The Human-Powered Submarine Club attracts eyeballs to its table on Library Walk by displaying its actual submarine, powered by a diver in scuba gear who operates bicycle-like pedals. 

“We take a chill approach,” said Victor Leung, who works on the submarine’s steering system. “If they come, they come. Especially when we have the sub — usually they glance at it, then look away, then glance again.” 

In a penetrating insight into the human condition, club treasurer Miles Chang added, “Lots of people want to build a submarine, they just don’t know it yet.”

There are, of course, alternatives to the old-fashioned Library Walk tabling. Events like the Student Org fair give campus groups an opportunity to advertise, but the fairs are only held once per quarter at most. New technologies have also given student organizations another tool through which to recruit new members. 

“Social media is pretty big,” Justin Huang, a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, said. “Posting on Tiktok, things like that. A lot of people are on Tiktok today, so that’s a way to reach people.” 

Even with online and social media-based recruitment strategies, Huang said that tabling on Library Walk remains an important part of his organization’s recruitment process; the huge crowds, even if they’re less than enthusiastic, are too good of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, it is something of a tradition.

Accosting people on Library Walk is far from a perfect solution to the difficulties that come with establishing a student organization at UCSD, but it seems to be the most effective option available — at least for the time being. Barring some major changes in the UCSD’s campus layout, Library Walk will remain the center of activity on campus, and the time-honored tradition of attempting to strike up conversations with strangers on their way to class will persist.