“The first day I showed up on campus I saw a group of people practicing with swords outside Risley,” said Jennifer Wholey ’10, president of Cornell’s Ring of Steel Club. The combatants, as it turned out, were members of Ring of Steel.

Though it might be one of the less-known –– and less believably titled –– club sports at Cornell, the Underwater Hockey Club is indeed a Cornell club as improbable as it sounds. Team member Miriam Goler ’09 called it, “… an absolutely ridiculous sport, but ridiculously fun and [the club has] a wonderful bunch of people.”

A reincarnation of a former Cornell club and also an American incarnation of a 2,000-year-old Chinese sport, the Cornell Dragon Boating Club has a colorful history.

Begin with a dark room, then fill it with loud music and add a crowd of students armed with glowsticks — at many American universities, this volatile mixture might be considered a recipe for arrest. For one group of Cornell students, though, these elements are merely the necessary ingredients for the weekly meeting of the Glowsticking Club.

What do events like Battle of the Late Night Foods, White House Ball, Asia Night and and Africa Initiative Concert all have in common? Aside from the fact that each is a student organization sponsored late night event at Cornell, these events all received at least part of their funding from the student-run CUTonight Funding Commission.

Enter the William Keeton House any Friday night after 9 p.m. and you’ll immediately be greeted by the cries and shouts of a heated debate.