Eating clubs wary of task force recommendations

The report praised the clubs as distinctive and integral parts of students’ social lives at the University, but also offered suggestions ranging from the mundane, such as joint purchasing for waste removal, to a proposal to establish an eating club match system that would replace current Bicker and sign-in processes. The report also urged clubs to be more transparent about the cost of membership and asked for the relationship between Greek organizations and the clubs to be reevaluated.

Martin Scheeler ’11, president of Tower Club and chair of the Interclub Council, said in an e-mail that he considered the task force’s evaluation of the club system to be generally correct.

“I would say that it was on the whole accurate, so long as the conception of the clubs as a whole continues to be tempered with the knowledge that there often exists large variation in personalities and practices between each of the individual clubs,” he said.

But Scheeler reacted strongly to the task force’s highest profile recommendation: the call for an alternative to Bicker in which sophomores, individually or in groups, could rank their preferences among clubs, while clubs could choose to submit lists of sophomores they would most like to admit. Under this system, a computer program would then match students with clubs based on these preferences.

Scheeler called the proposed system “extremely misguided and unrealistic.”

“Part of the report found that each of the clubs has a unique personality, which is very important to students as they weigh their eating club options and try to find the club at which they feel most at home,” he said. “This [alternative Bicker] process has the chance of placing students in clubs that they have no real interest in being part of, which would ultimately be both unfulfilling for the student and damaging to the club’s sense of community.”

ICC adviser Tim Prugar ’06 said the bicker clubs had some concerns about the possible new approach to membership selection.

“Regarding the current recommendation of the ‘medical school’ approach, I’m not sure logistically what that would look like,” Prugar said. “I know that many of the bicker clubs are worried about the length of discussions and the length each individual would be discussed.”

Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69, who chaired the task force, stressed that the report did not make any recommendations as to how selective eating clubs would decide which students they would prefer to admit.

“They could follow the same interview process they conduct now if they wanted to, it’s just that at the end of the process they would submit a list of preferences rather than deliver acceptances and rejections as they do now,” he explained in an e-mail.

Colonial Club president David Hou ’11 applauded the efforts of the Task Force but noted in an e-mail that “there are ... bound to be errors in any such undertaking, and I can point to a few inaccuracies concerning Colonial alone.” He did not elaborate on his concerns.

The task force also addressed the financial aspects of club membership, and some of the recommendations on this topic were well received by Scheeler and Prugar.

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“I think that a lot of good would come from expanding financial aid to cover sophomore dues,” Scheeler said, referring to the task force’s recommendation that the University consider improvements in its current financial aid policy, which currently does not incldue sophomore dues or club social fees in its calculation of eating club costs.

Prugar echoed the task force’s call for greater transparency when it comes to fees.

“Transparency lets the clubs explain why the fees are what they are,” Prugar explained. “For instance, security and insurance are a large part of the costs covered by fees, but people don’t always realize that.”

Scheeler did express some concerns over the “smaller-scale initiatives” suggested by the task force to cut costs, such as having clubs close for dinner one night a week with the understanding that members could then eat in the residential college dining halls.

“[These initiatives] run the risk of having a negative effect on club employees without being incredibly effective,” he said.

Regardless, Prugar noted that are currently many avenues available for students looking to learn more about the financial aspects of club membership.

“Just like any investment, you want to make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into financially,” he said. “I would urge any sophomores to contact a president, a member, house manager, steward or grad board member to see what precisely it would cost to be a member. They all want Princeton students to join a club. If you speak to them, you gain a much better understand of the eating club process from the financial end.”

Quadrangle Club president Eric Salazar ’11 declined to comment, citing restrictions from Quad's graduate board. Cottage Club president Chris Della Porta ’11 also declined to comment. Cap & Gown Club president Rachel Blum ’11, Charter Club president Justin Knutson ’11, Cloister Inn president Barrett LaChance ’11, Ivy Club president John Zacharias ’11, Terrace Club president Andrew Chong ’11 and Tiger Inn president Michael Portillo ’11 did not respond to requests for comment.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Cottage Club president Chris Della Porta '11 declined to comment because of graduate board restrictions when, in fact, he did not qualify his decision to decline to comment.