Cottage drops pickups

But the revelry will be a bit quieter this morning. In a break from recent years, Cottage Club will not pick up its new members at their dorm rooms.

“After discussions between our members, officers and Graduate Board, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to discontinue on-campus pickups,” Cottage president Ben Bologna ’10 said in an e-mail.

Meanwhile, members of Cap & Gown Club had heard mixed reports about whether the club’s membership will pick up successful bickerees in their dorm rooms this year. Cap president Andres Perez ’10 declined to clarify.

“The Cap & Gown Club will, at the conclusion of our bicker proceedings, welcome our new members with enthusiasm, vigor and happiness as we always have and will continue to do,” Perez said in an e-mail. “These celebrations will be managed with an eye for safety by trained officers in accordance with guidelines established by the [Interclub Council (ICC)].”

The presidents of Ivy Club, Tower Club and Tiger Inn declined to comment, though their clubs are expected to continue on-campus pickups.

Bologna said that Cottage’s decision not to hold pickups was motivated by consideration of those students not selected for membership.

“For the officer corps, it became apparent that our on-campus pickups activities had become ‘salt in the open wound’ for the many students who are not granted a bid through Bicker. This is not what Cottage stands for and as a result we no longer want to continue such activity,” he added.

University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69 said that the feelings of those who are not offered bids have been a topic of continued discussion and concern. Durkee chairs the eating club task force, which was established in September 2009 by President Tilghman and former USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 to examine the relationship between the University and the eating clubs.

“One of the task force members described it as ‘conspicuous cruelty,’ ” Durkee said, referring to the pickup tradition. While being rejected from a club is a difficult experience, “it makes it even more difficult if they have to witness the picking up of students who were successful,” he added.

Durkee also said that safety issues are a source of concern. He noted that a “best practices” group, composed of administrators, Public Safety officials and eating club representatives, was established about six years ago to discuss issues relating to eating club procedures, including wristband and identification policies. He added that in the past few years the group has discussed the connection between pickups and heavy alcohol consumption.

Last spring, 13 students were admitted to the University Medical Center at Princeton following bicker pickups.

Durkee noted that the tradition of holding pick-ups for new members is “of relatively recent vintage.”

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Before on-campus pickups, he said, the clubs invited their new members to Prospect Avenue and welcomed them in their clubhouses.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Maria Flores-Mills said in an e-mail that ICC members, ICC adviser Tim Prugar '06 and representatives from Public Safety have been “working collaboratively” with the administration to make the pickup process safer for all those involved. Flores-Mills is also a member of the eating club task force.

Several years ago, the eating clubs agreed to adhere to guidelines for their members’ behavior while traveling through campus to pick up new members from their dorm rooms. These guidelines called for clubs to notify Public Safety before the pick-up process to allow officers to monitor the proceedings, to finish pickups by 5 p.m. and to not carry alcohol during pickups.

“This year, the club presidents took an additional step by having everyone who bickered their club sign an agreement stating that they would not be intoxicated for pickups if they were selected to join the club, with the possibility of a host of social probations if they violate that agreement,” Flores-Mills added.

Durkee noted that the discussion on pickup procedures will continue in the future.

Though they have not yet reached conclusions or made recommendations, Durkee said he would be “very surprised” if the task force members did not address the pick-up process in their discussions, noting that one possible area of analysis would be the way in which pick-ups contribute to “a culture that may encourage more alcohol consumption.”

Durkee said the task force “would commend any club that chose not to do it that way.”

Bologna added another reason for discontinuing pickups at Cottage.

“From the club’s perspective, it gives us the opportunity to start celebrating our new members in their new house without the added challenge of taking 200 people across the entire campus,” he said.