“You are Great!” “The world deserves another day with you in it!”

These words and phrases were just some of the few thoughts and feelings of students and faculty alike on the California campus.

From Monday, March 16 to Wednesday, March 18, Pen Club Literary Magazine tabled in the Natali Student Center with a large poster board, where students and faculty wrote words or phrases on sticky notes and stuck them onto it.

With 20 different sticky notes that have a diverse set of emotions and expressed thoughts, Pen Club can now begin piecing together each sticky note to form the “Poem Of Cal.”

The “Poem Of Cal” is a creative writing campaign with the goal of using poetry to give students and faculty a voice while remaining anonymous.

While the majority of the responses were positive, some expressed disapproval and anger at the actions taken by the campus administration.

“The world is your oyster, and Cal is the barnacle.” 

“Give me my program back you b*stards.” “No AI!!!”

Regardless of the positive or negative responses, the “Poem Of Cal” campaign garnered interest from students and brought further awareness to Pen Club Literary Magazine’s mission.

Rose Molthan, Editor-In-Chief for Pen Club Literary Magazine, was hopeful for the project even though they have had to move their work to be remote.

“I feel nothing short of inspired by the uplifting entries that students shared for the poem. I’m grateful that our club was able to highlight the student experience in this way.”

Katie Troxell, Publisher for Pen Club Literary Magazine, said that she was excited to finish and publish the project.

“We wanted to create a way for everyone on Cal’s campus to collaborate on an artistic project together. It was great to see how everyone responded to our prompt about what Cal means to them, and I am excited for the final creation to be revealed soon.”

Club officers are currently working on forming the poem, with an expected date for publishing to be determined.