There have been 21 Club Nom events over the course of the past two years, founder and organizer Hannah Rosenthal ’15 said.
Although not all eating clubs signed on to be involved with Club Nom last year, all 11 clubs joinedthis year, Rosenthal said.
Club Nom is part of the Ask Big Questions initiative.
Marni Blitz, associate director of the CJL, is the adviser of Club Nom along with Tennille Haynes, Director of the Fields Center.
“[Club Nom] was a very low-barrier way to have important conversations,” Blitz said.“It was something that we were extremely supportive of from the very beginning. We loved the idea of connecting Ask Big Questions with the eating clubs."
Especially in light of recent issues across campus and across the nation, it has been good for students to have the opportunity to discuss different viewpoints and opinions, Blitz said.
“Being able to have a space [for students] to talk about recent issues where they weren’t being judged was extremely important.”
Rosenthal said she first conceived of the idea for the organization when she visited the University as a junior in high school as a Princeton Prize in Race Relations winner.
“I guess my first impression of Princeton was that there was some level of segregation along ethnic and racial lines and that really stood out to me,” Rosenthal said.
She said that during her visit, which occurred during the weekend of Houseparties, students seemed to be separated by certain racial or cultural backgrounds.
Rosenthal said that she wanted to try to build relationships with eating clubs to provide opportunities for students of diverse backgrounds and interests to interact with each other.
"So much of the Princeton social scene is not only centered around eating clubs but also around meal times," Rosenthal said. "Many people don’t make time for socializing outside of meals, so I hoped that some sort of dialogue series over meals would enable students who don’t normally engage outside of the classroom to have meaningful conversation."
For the past two years Rosenthal, who recently received a Spirit of Princeton award, has overseen all club events.
“It’s great that all the [eating] clubs are involved with [Club Nom] since it gives the members of eating clubs, in addition to students not in eating clubs, the opportunity to engage in discussion as well as to see the [various eating] clubs themselves,” Interclub Council President Jean-Carlos Arenas ’16 said. “It’s really nice to have all the [eating] clubs present a united front in terms of being on board with this initiative."
Arenas is also a former chief copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.
Jose Lopez ’16, who will be one of the Club Nom officers next year, said a few changes were planned.
“I think we’re going to change the way we advertise discussions a little bit ... What we’re about is bringing different people together and just chatting. It doesn’t always have to be a really deep topic," Lopez said. “It’s about bringing different slices of Princeton social life together and seeing what we can learn from each other. ... [Rosenthal] was really keeping theship afloat these past two years. It takes four or five people to replace her.”
Club Nom might also expand the number of people per meal to 20 or 25, Lopez said. It also might try to extend the club's outreach outside of dinner conversation, possibly creating table tents with discussion prompts for the eating clubdining halls leading up to the event, as well as holding more events.
“We’re hoping to each sort of pair up with a few different clubs and get to know the officers in those clubs, build a relationship, and then each handle setting up a Club Nom session at each of the places we’ve partnered up with,"Matthew Silberman ’17, one of next year’s co-leaders of Club Nom said.
Many times, students fall into a pattern of only socializing with their respective eating clubs, Silberman added.
“I feel like the situation here shouldn’t be strangers until proven friends,” he said.
Rosenthal said thatClub Nom's biggest contribution, however, has been breaking down stereotypes on a personal level.
"I would say that it’s a symbolic success in some ways in that it shows that the eating club system is open to these sorts of conversations and opening up their doors for students who don’t normally have the opportunity to eat in their clubs," Rosenthal said. "A lot of [eating club] stereotypes are broken by Club Nom. ... On the institutional level, it’s symbolic because it’s the first step in breaking down the boundaries between social circles."
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