CHASEN | An Unexpected Outlet

Over the course of my time here in Ithaca, I have seen how Cornell provides so many opportunities to pursue your passions, both inside and outside the classroom. Yet, I have also seen the ways we can feel shoehorned into taking specific classes, pursuing certain courses of study or applying for certain clubs solely for perceived professional benefits. 

As I have argued throughout this column, I believe it is critically important to have an outlet where one can have fun and pursue a passion just for the sake of it. It can be an outlet for your creativity or a place to reconnect with old friends while making new ones. In the end, having an outlet for our joys and frustrations is what keeps us sane.

PLOWE | An Introvert’s Guide to Belonging

The following information is a guide for becoming a deeply interconnected recluse, or, just a guide to living with more freedom. I don’t care who you are — this is for you. If you follow these invitations, you will absolutely make a few close friends.

MEHLER | Let’s Revive Cornell’s Student Clubs Part 1

What has been lost is why and how different clubs coexisted and collaborated together. All student organizations have different origins, missions and goals, but all clubs share one starting point: students coming together. Whether they came together to support a social cause, play a sport, celebrate cultures, host conferences, raise money for charities, etc., it was achieved through students mobilizing themselves. Clubs exist, regardless of charge, as a way for students to come together.

CHOUNG | The Club-tastrophe 

As the month of September rolls around, it is remarkable how quickly the atmosphere shifted from the comradery of students bustling to make friends to the cutthroat tension as competition intensifies to join a pre-professional club. I first saw hints of this change when I started seeing more students strutting around North Campus in suits and business casual attire. They all seemed to clump together in a sea of black suits and walked with a sense of purpose that I admired from afar.

CHASEN | Inclusive Clubs in an Exclusive University

As we approach the end of September, most Cornellians have experienced the club recruiting process in some way, shape or form. Around campus and on social media, signs promoting clubs and professional organizations are ubiquitous. It can sometimes seem a little overwhelming when you consider the miniscule acceptance rates of many of these organizations, and wonder if you’ll ever have the chance to find the club or community that is right for you.

AGGARWAL | What I Found Outside of Competitive Club Culture

Club culture is integral to all students’ experiences, whether they like it or not. This culture is not necessarily unique to Cornell — though I cannot definitively say or quantify its impact in higher education across the nation. Here on our campus, I see that it has created a herd mentality with both pros and cons, but from the perspective of a student founder, I believe there is a point where obsession with club culture does more to stifle the creativity of the student body than encourage it. 

I speak from the perspective of an undergraduate senior who is/was involved in a few major clubs with time commitments ranging between six to ten hours per week each on average. One is a prominent dance team, a second is a well-known consulting club and another still is a university-backed project team. For the first two years of college especially, I found myself devoting a lot of time to the work and social commitments of each club — it’s worth noting that these clubs in particular were not casual commitments, although that is the nature of many clubs at Cornell. 

I think of my college experience as two different stories: the first two years of which were spent building up my social experience and my clubs, and the latter two focused more on my personal endeavors.