Charter fills, eliminates waitlist

Now in the second year of its point system, Charter accepted 100 of 144 sophomores in the first round, but discontinued its wait-list policy.

“We have stopped offering a wait list because we feel it is immoral to tell a sophomore for an entire semester that they will love the club and then subsequently not be able to offer them membership,” president Rodrigo Menezes ’13 said in an email.

Charter’s new weighted point system allows sophomores to earn points by attending events and meals at the club. Each point total is the average of two percentages, one for sophomore meals attended and one for events attended. For groups of students who sign-in together, the average of all the students’ point totals are taken, and this number must be higher than the point cutoff for the group to be offered membership.

The point cutoff this year was 0.52, significantly higher than last year, when former president Daniel Fletcher ’12 told The Daily Princetonian that a student must have attended roughly one quarter of the events to gain membership.

“This is indicative of the higher interest in Charter this year, not in the higher expectations that we hold for sophomores,” Menezes explained.

Terrace Club’s sign-in class of 79 is seven students larger than last year’s. While this number “definitely met our expectations,” club president Dimitris Papaconstantinou ’13 said in an email, Terrace is not yet filled to capacity. The club technically does not have a limit to its size, although Papaconstantinou added that numbers above 140 would be difficult to accommodate.

Colonial Club saw 63 sophomores sign-ins and 11 upperclassmen sign in in the first round, for a total of 74, just ten lower than last year. The club expects that after the second round, the new sign-in class will total about 120 students, including 15-20 upperclassmen. These new membership figures would be similar to those of last year.

Colonial president Roland Hwang ’13 said in an email that he is satisfied with this first-round number and mentioned that while the club does not traditionally have a set capacity, it will “decide on a cap as necessary” if the second-round sign-in numbers are large.

Colonial has had a recent history of dramatic fluctuations in membership. Sign-in numbers decreased steadily in past years, from 115 in 2007, to 103 in 2008, to 87 in 2009, and finally to a mere 13 in 2010. Last year’s class rebounded with 84 first-round sign-ins, and this year’s membership, though slightly lower, is “solid” for the first round, Hwang said. After the second round of sign-ins this week, Colonial’s board hopes to reach a level equivalent to last year’s, Hwang added.

“It’s very difficult to pinpoint factors that cause such fluctuations in numbers; however, we believe that the successes of our sign-in numbers these past two years [are] correlated to the successes of our social events,” Hwang said. He added that Colonial’s sophomore package offers a substantial number of additional meals at a low price, on top of the designated two per week.

Quadrangle Club, which has a policy of nondisclosure regarding exact sign-in numbers, did not respond to requests to comment on this year’s new membership. According to last year’s club photo composite, the club consists of slightly over 60 members.

In January, Quad announced that it would lower its fees to match the cost of a full meal plan to attract students who otherwise would not have joined an eating club for financial reasons.

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Cloister Inn president Brian Wettach ’13 declined to provide sign-in numbers for the club, citing club policy. According to a source in the club with knowledge of the club's recruitment, 32 students signed in to Cloister.

As recently as fall sign-ins this past October, Cloister has officially provided its membership figures to the ‘Prince.’ Last February, Cloister took 77 new members in the first round and 36 more in the second round, filling the club to capacity. The club took six new members in the fall.

Editor's note: This article has been changed to reflect sign-in numbers obtained for Cloister.

Correction: Due to a reporting error, the number of upperclassmen sign-ins and anticipated second-round sign-ins for Colonial Club was misstated. The club accepted 63 sophomore and 11 upperclassmen sign-ins in the first round. After the second round, the club anticipates a total of about 120 students. This version reflects the changes. The 'Prince' regrets the error.