Fall bicker offers another opportunity to join clubs

According to Fitzgerald, springtime at Princeton is famous for three things: its lazy beauty, the wild moonlight revels of its rushes, and a yearly phenomenon known as Bicker. During this week-long frenzy, ambitious sophomores attempt to win membership in selective eating clubs. If a sophomore is rejected, a friend from the rejecting club goes to his or her room with a letter and condolences. After this disappointment, most sophomores sign up with other clubs or go independent, but a determined few wait until fall of their junior years to bicker a second time.

Kelly Johnson '06 is one such hopeful. Although her effort to join Ivy last fall proved unsuccessful, she joined over 40 other juniors in Ivy's foyer on Sunday to undergo the club's membership application process a second time. Glancing at club members as they mingled with applicants, she cautiously described her hosing last spring as "not much fun." Still, she enjoyed Ivy's community and nightlife so much that she decided membership was worth the risk of a second rejection.

An unusually high number of juniors have made the same choice. Unlike previous years, every bicker club except Tiger Inn has opted to hold a fall bicker. Each of these clubs also claims to have seen a larger-than-usual turnout of fall applicants.

Tower Club president Eric Czervionke '05 said juniors who have been rejected from clubs to which their friends have been accepted sometimes use fall bicker as a way to quietly transfer to a club with their friend group. In turn, the juniors who won membership last spring often use their votes to sway the larger vote in favor of their friends.

"Usually people fall bicker into a club because they already have friends there," he said.

Emma Taylor '05, Tower's secretary, agreed. She said Tower expects a large turnout this fall because the club "had an enthusiastic spring class and they're bringing their friends."

Fellow Bicker club Cottage also boasts a record number of fall applicants, but for a different reason. Unlike annual fall Bicker hosts Tower and Ivy, Cottage is holding fall bicker for the first time in recent history.

Cottage president J. Bowen '05 said, "This is the first year in several years we've done fall Bicker, for several reasons I don't want to discuss."

After suffering a decline in interested sophomores last year — from 102 new members in 2002 to 84 in 2003 — Cottage declined to release its numbers for spring 2004 Bicker.

At the same time, some sign-in clubs have experienced a growth in new members. Last year, sign-in clubs Quadrangle and Colonial each received more applicants than they could admit, and overall student interest has leaned toward sign-in clubs.

Nonetheless, these trends don't necessarily boost Kelly Johnson's odds of Ivy membership. Ivy bicker chair Tricia Gadsen '05 said Ivy has fewer spots for new members this fall. "We also had a huge turnout in spring," she said, but even then "we obviously couldn't accept everyone."