Colonial credits social schedule for increased numbers

Last year, Colonial Club received just 13 new members in the first round, a dramatic decline from its numbers in previous years. While Colonial’s first-round numbers had been decreasing every year since 2007 — from 115 to 103 to 87 — the club nonetheless filled in the second round. Despite predictions last year that the club would soon be forced to close its doors, Colonial received 84 new members in the first round this year, restoring itself to sustainable levels.

Though only 25 students signed into the club in the second round last year, Colonial president Susan Zhang ’12 is expecting a sizeable, and perhaps even overwhelming, number of second-round sign-ins this spring.

“Ideally, I would say a total of 120 to 130 sophomores would be a good number to shoot for,” Zhang said in an e-mail. She added, however, that she wants to ensure that anyone who really wants to be a member of Colonial is not denied and that the club would accept up to 70 new sophomores in the second round, if necessary.

The club’s officer corps attributes the rebounding numbers to its acknowledgement of a problem with perceptions of Colonial among a significant portion of the campus community.

“A lot of it was trying to break down the stereotype that so many people have of Colonial being not as cool a club — a lame club compared to others,” social chair Angelica Ortiz ’12 said.

To avoid a repeat of last spring’s poor sign-in performance, the officer corps increased the number of events to publicize the club, such as Colonial Mansion and Easy A. Events like these, whose crowds allowed students to see how much fun Colonial could be, convinced some sophomores to join, Ortiz said.

Sophomores who signed in cited the success of these events, as well as the club’s general family-like atmosphere, as factors that convinced them that last year’s poor turnout was an irrelevant fluke.

“The officers did a really good job putting on events and inviting sophomores over in general, which is why I think so many more people signed in this year,” said Roland Hwang ’13, who signed into Colonial, in an e-mail. “It didn’t matter at all that so few people signed in the year before.”

“The club managed to have such a quick turnaround because last year was an abnormality,” Daniel Pedraza ’13 said in an e-mail. “A club as great as Colonial should have a large first-round sign-in group, which it historically has and did so this year.”

While Colonial saw a return to historical sign-in numbers, Charter and Terrace broke with the past in order to pilot new ideas. Charter’s new system of weighted points was enacted by the club in September to ensure a larger and more dedicated membership.

“Last year, people who would have been really great members didn’t end up getting in because of the flip of a coin, and we would get members who would just come in for meals and leave and weren’t really committed to the club,” Charter president Daniel Fletcher ’12 said.

This year, on the other hand, sophomores received points for coming to social events like Charter Blackout, Monday Night Football and the allotted two sophomore meals each month. According to Fletcher, a sophomore had to attend roughly a quarter of the events in order to get in.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“It looks like it’s working in terms of getting us a more committed and a more active membership,” Fletcher said. For example, when Charter had its annual board game night for new members, Fletcher said, the attendance was far above what it was last year.

Nick McAfee ’13, who told The Daily Princetonian in December that he was confident he would get into Charter based on the number of events he had attended, was indeed accepted and praised the new system as “extremely fair.”

“The process of gaining points was quite enjoyable and provided both excellent meals and a variety of social opportunities to meet the club’s members,” McAfee said in an e-mail. He added that “anyone with a little dedication can become a member.”

Terrace’s new plan to admit graduate students did not see quite the same success. While former president Andrew Chong ’12 said in December that the club was hoping to sign in 10 graduate students, no graduate students signed in, largely due to financial concerns, according to current president Ricardo Lopez ’12. Though the University offers financial aid to qualified undergraduates to offset the cost of joining an eating club, no such system exists for graduate students. Lopez said that the officers are meeting with Terrace’s graduate board this weekend to discuss further action.

“Grad students receive their stipends much like a salary and there are no prescriptions on how it is to be spent,” Khee-Gan Lee GS said in an e-mail. “Therefore, the Graduate School is unlikely to provide financial aid specifically to let grad students join an eating club, since the stipends are supposed to cover all living costs already.”

Lee, the communications director of the Graduate Student Government, wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the ‘Prince’ in November supporting Terrace’s decision. He added that compromises such as partial meal plans or social memberships might incentivize graduate students to join an eating club.

Correction

The original version of this article stated that Angelica Ortiz ’12 was the vice president of Colonial. She is the social chair. This article has been updated to reflect this change.