Clubs Recruit Despite Pandemic
By Kaylee Chen, Sheala Iacobucci and Safira Schiowitz
On Saturday, Sep. 26, Exeter experienced its first ever Virtual Club Night, where students could sign up for dozens of student organizations, ranging from Astronomy Club to Stand Up Comedy. Despite being online, the event was well-attended, with the Student Activities club sign-up page garnering about two thousand views.
At 7p.m. that night, Director of Student Activities Joanne Lembo sent her department’s ExeterConnect page to the student body. On that page, students received a list of all clubs running fall term. Each club provided a short description, a Zoom link for club night, and a one-minute video about the club. After learning about the general goals of each club, students had the option of signing up for the email list.
While Club Night went smoothly, some student leaders voiced concern. “I worry that students will be more hesitant to try new things because they have to actively seek out clubs rather than having clubs reach out to them like at a typical club night,” senior and Model United Nations (MUN) co-head Nahla Owens said.
The organization of clubs on the web page, in contrast to a physical setting, also drew some concern. “I was worried that new students would get overwhelmed with all of the club choices and miss the chance to join MUN,” fellow senior and MUN co-head Phil Horrigan said.
Some technical issues also arose throughout the event. Many clubs did not have the Zoom links that they submitted for the page, and some co-heads did not realize that they could only host one meeting. “I would definitely take more time to get organized with the Zoom links and ensure that Student Activities has all the correct information before club night,” Owens said.
Although senior and Pendulum, Poms, and Chinese Student Organization co-head Christina Xiao was able to recruit a good number of students, she missed the atmosphere of in-person Club Night. “I really missed the chaos of being all together in the hockey rink, holding up signs, calling out to passing-by preps and taking walks on breaks to visit friends’ booths,” Xiao said. “The contrast between that lively experience and being by myself in my dorm room, waiting for people to join the Zoom meeting, felt isolating.”
Some students, including prep Sophia Lala, found the virtual platform difficult to navigate. “The virtual platform was a little confusing when I first accessed it because some clubs were live on Zoom, while others were not,” she said.
Ethan Chang, who is a new upper, found that the instructions for how to join clubs were not explicit.
Despite Club Night being virtual, however, all students were enthusiastic about lengthening their list of extracurriculars and getting to know more of their peers. New lower Elina Yang enjoyed the club infomercials and said that they were “especially interesting and fun to watch.” She continued to say that they were helpful when she made choices between clubs.
Many students found that the virtual platform did not pose as many challenges as they initially imagined. “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I logged into the Zoom sessions for each club,” prep Vedika Amin said. She was concerned that the clubs she was interested in would meet at times incompatible with her schedule. When she did finally meet the co-heads, though, Amin felt welcomed and was even more encouraged to join the organizations.
Prep Byron Grevious had a similar experience. His trepidations about whether he could engage with several clubs during the limited timeframe were dispelled when he talked to co-heads. “I managed to go to about five to six clubs, and it was a blast,” Grevious said.
Despite the difficulties that occurred, Club Night was a mostly effective experience. New students learned more about the clubs they were interested in, and, while there was an anticipated decrease in sign-ups for some clubs, co-heads were fairly satisfied with the turnout. As Horrigan put it, “I think that this format of club night was about as good as you could do.”