Students need creative outlets, groups that inspire and connect them with their peers. The Associated Student Body (ASB) is responsible for making decisions that greatly impact the entire student body, including those related to one of the most interactive portions of student life— clubs!
With over 95 club entries, ASB was tasked with the job of deciding which clubs will be approved and showcased at Club Rush. ASB members were tasked with independently going through every single club request and deciding which clubs they would like to accept, merge, or deny. Merging of clubs occurs when there are two students that request to open a similar club.
It took two full class periods in order for every student to come to a final decision on which clubs to merge and deny. In the end, Mrs. Tatevosian, ASB advisor, sent out a google form to the entire class in order to have a final vote on what clubs would be approved. This led to a class discussion where the members of ASB were able to advocate for other student groups and clubs on campus.
Once the final approved club list was established, Club Rush, a 3-day-event, was planned. Each club was given a table to showcase their club and share information with students that were potentially interested in joining. Each club was given a day at lunch to present their club divided by categories. Day 1: Hobby and Competitive Clubs, Day 2: Academics, Sports, and Health Clubs, and Day 3:Community Outreach, World, and Culture Clubs.
On the final day of the event, a Google form sign out was sent out to every single student on campus with a four day window to show interest and sign up for any club they might want to join. With over 60 clubs to choose from, students are not limited to how many they can join, but the reality of the situation is that a student is unlikely to have enough time to join more than 4-6 clubs if they want to be an active member.
“I like this new system of signing up for clubs because every club has a chance to gain sign-ups without the hassle of handling physical papers during Club Rush,” junior Nancy Tanossian, Red Cross Club president said. Filling out a google form via StudentSquare also helps establish an initial roster for club presidents as they begin planning meetings for their club.
The Student Body of Clark is racing to change the structure of clubs in order to ensure that every student has a fair opportunity to start or join a club they want to be a part of. “I think Club Rush this year had much more traction with students and gave people an opportunity to learn more about each club on campus,” junior Krista Madhu, Director of Clubs said.
Club Rush was a fun lunch activity with music and students mingling. Hopefully students learned about some new clubs they didn’t even know existed on campus. The next steps for ASB, Director of Clubs and Club Presidents is to establish meeting times, reach out to the roster of students that showed interest and invite students to join the first meeting.
