With 217 bickering, Tower Club sets record
Eating Clubs 2008: By the Numbers - A 'Prince' Web Exclusive
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All but one eating club filled to capacity following Bicker and second-round sign-ins, signaling strong demand for club membership in the first year in which the four-year residential college system has been in place.
The selective clubs admitted a total of at least 400 students, while over 450 joined sign-in clubs during the first and second rounds.
Tower Club’s 217 bickerees represents the largest bicker class in Princeton history, according to club officers. Of those who bickered, 104 were accepted. Outgoing club president Jon Fernandez ’08 said that while this year’s class is larger than previous classes, the increase is “a testament to the bicker class,” adding that “it was terrible to have to hose as many as we did.”
Fernandez cited positive Bicker — where members were not allowed to comment negatively about bickerees during discussions — and the club’s social and academic diversity as main draws for prospective members. The club’s 48 percent acceptance rate dipped from 54 percent in 2007 and 66 percent in 2006.
Tiger Inn accepted 68 of 80 bickerees, an 85 percent acceptance rate, outgoing club president Chris Merrick ’08 said in an e-mail. The club’s acceptance rate — the highest of all the bicker clubs — held steady from last year’s 84 percent.
Merrick said that this year’s bickerees “have already shown dedication to TI by bickering despite our recent legal troubles.” In October 2007, Princeton Borough charged the presidents of TI, Cottage Club and Cloister Inn with serving alcohol to minors and maintaining a nuisance. The charges against all three club presidents have since been withdrawn.
Cottage Club accepted 94 new members, president Vince Ley ’08 said an in e-mail, but he would not confirm the total number who bickered. Twenty-four individuals who bickered were denied acceptance to the club, however, according to an e-mail sent from club officers to members that was obtained by The Daily Princetonian. The 80 percent acceptance rate is an increase from last year, when 67 percent of those who bickered were admitted.
Cap & Gown Club accepted 80 new members, according to an official list obtained by the ‘Prince.’ Club president Mark Bur ’08 declined to comment on the club’s bicker numbers, but reports from several members indicated that about 105 students bickered.
Ivy Club officers did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Several members have said that Ivy took 64 out of 115 bickerees, or 55.6 percent. This is lower than last year, when about 58.5 percent of bickerees were accepted. Over the past decade, Ivy has consistently taken between 60 and 70 new members each spring.
Quadrangle Club is the only club that is “not at full capacity,” said an officer familiar with the situation, who was granted anonymity because the club did not want to release numbers while still accepting new members. Between 40 and 50 individuals joined the club during first- and second-round sign-ins, the officer added, almost equivalent to last spring’s 45 new members.
Cloister added 39 members in second-round sign-ins, bringing its total new membership to 90, club president John LaMonaca ’09 said. LaMonaca said that Cloister is not instituting a waitlist since “we’re right where we want to be at.”
Colonial Club added 19 members during the second round of sign-in to bring its incoming class to 125, its maximum capacity, according to club president Beau Thomas ’09. The club plans to institute a waitlist for those who could not be accommodated during the second round of sign-ins.
Charter Club is also at capacity after raising its cap to 90 members during first-round sign-ins. Club president Mike Coolbaugh ’09 said in an e-mail that the club already has 15 people on its waitlist and is still adding prospective members to the waitlist. The club will grant “full Sophomore membership” to those on the waitlist, though they are “not guaranteed a spot come the fall.”
Coolbaugh added that in the past, “spots become available over the summer,” and that sophomores who are currently on the waitlist will be offered full membership in the fall to fill these spots “by the discretion of the officers, based on their enthusiasm and dedication to the club.”
Terrace Club remains capped at 110 members, having accepted only one member off its waitlist since the first round of sign-ins, said club president Jon Feyer ’09. This year’s low attrition contrasts with previous spring semesters. Feyer estimated that as many as 20 sophomores withdrew from membership last spring.
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View all 16 comments on "With 217 bickering, Tower Club sets record".
Wait, since when has Cap been known for having the rich, beautiful, or refined?
There are two interesting phenomena to explain both Tower's consistently high bicker numbers (and thus consistently low acceptance rate) and its particularly skyrocket numbers this year. First, unlike the other 4 Bicker clubs, Tower actively recruits bickerees. For one, Tower is the only Bicker club that advertises bicker with flyers across campus (reminiscent of flyers Quad puts up). While Cap, Cottage, Ivy, and TI all have sophomore nights or dinners, they are no match for Tower's multiple dinners, cocktail parties, sophomore study breaks, and most glaringly as "I'm True Blue" alluded to: Tower's four huge bicker parties--which we must not forget the club spends over $6000 on every year. Of course, this is for better or for worse, and one should make the case the Cottage, Ivy, Cap, and TI SHOULD spend more than the few hundred dollars they do on the bicker process--Bicker and the continued tradition of admitting new members being perhaps the clubs most important event of the year--it must be taken into account that they truly only recruit by word of mouth. Though Tower still offers the friendliest and most emotionally safe bicker process, an interesting thought experiment would be to see Tower's numbers after a year in which their pre-bicker events were as mundane as the other 4 club's few events. This comparison either speaks of Cottage et al's appeal to sophomores despite lack of publicity, or to Tower's desperate efforts to attract bickerees. I'm sure Tower would still have more bickerees than available spots, but their numbers would certainly be low--if not for that fact that a good number of those who Bicker hadn't set foot in the club before the first pre-bicker events. Given the amount of money Tower spends on bicker, no wonder its the only Bicker club that openly and proudly boasts its Bicker numbers--as if its trying to prove something. Secondly, this year the whole Street has seen particularly tough legal action and many clubs have had to act accordingly regarding Thursday and Saturday nights. As a result, several clubs changed their entrance policies and became much more difficult to get into for underclassmen. Cottage and TI were on tap less, Colonial has had issues since the spring, Terrace went members only more times than I can remember in 3 years here, and Cap practically abolished passes, instituting some new members-sign-you-in system, which from what a member has told me made it harder for people to come on a saturday night whim, and especially harder for freshman and sophomores, who know fewer members, to get in on the weekends. Aside from being on pass more than it historically has, Tower’s door policy did not really seem to change. As a result, sophomores not wanting to join mostly freshman at Quad and not willing to jump through hoops to get into Ivy, (which has been known to go on pass even when they’re not on tap) were left with Tower as the most accessible club for non-members. Of course many other clubs still offered their members consistent full-party-access, the options for non-club members were definitely limited this fall. While on one side this speaks highly of Tower, my point is only to say that sophomores did not get the same exposure to Cottage, TI, and Cap as in years past, and that they might have been a little over-exposed to Tower as being a place to fairly easily get into--the Quad for Sophomores. I theorize that as a result of these policies, Cottage, TI, and Cap saw significant declines in bicker numbers. Though my intention is not to hate on a club that I have known and loved for a good portion of my time at Princeton, I will end with a final thought that I think transcends the arguments raised about current and past trends. Compared to the other bicker clubs, Tower stands out as the only one of the five that consistently loses members to other clubs--not just to the 4 year colleges. Last fall, for example, at least 3 members of Tower dropped it for Cap, and this spring, at least 1 member dropped it to successfully bicker T.I. Moreover, in the time I’ve known Tower, more than I can count have left it for Terrace and I’ve even known one to swap to Cloister. The reverse, however, is rarely true. I’ve never known or heard of someone swapping from another bicker club to Tower, and almost all that get into Tower as juniors or seniors have either been hosed from Tower at least once, or have been hosed somewhere else on the street (read: their first choice club). 217 bickerees might be a lot, but where Tower stands out among the five in its ability to obtain members, it also stands out among the five in its inability to retain members. That, perhaps, is a more sobering truth than a 48% acceptance rate.