As campus organizations prepare for spring recruitment, many Cornellians are looking forward to joining student-led organizations and clubs. ClubFest is held in Barton Hall on Sunday, Feb. 5, and offers students a space to explore various Cornell communities.
Ranging from publications to reuse initiatives, a multitude of student clubs will be promoting their visions and initiatives at the event.
Crème de Cornell, the university’s only student-run food magazine, works to connect students passionate about food at Cornell.
According to Robert Brooks ’23, president and editor-in-chief of Crème, the magazine has over 80 members.
“The main goal for the [Fall 2022 semester] was to create a more socially engaging experience for the club as a whole,” Brooks said. “The one main thing we’d like to improve upon for this upcoming semester is creating more opportunities for collaboration. This will primarily look like members across subteams working on creative projects with one another.”
Ultimately, Crème members aim to utilize ClubFest to recruit members and expand their social media presence, especially on Instagram Reels and TikTok, on which the future of food media lies, according to Brooks.
“We realized a great way to stir up excitement around the Crème brand is by hosting bake sales with an angle,” Brooks said. “For example, we launched a cannoli cart last semester where we’d sell cannolis and pass out magazines on Ho Plaza. We found that a lot of people discover us through sales like this, and we’ll likely continue them this semester to create more buzz around recruitment.”
Similarly, Cornell Thrift, dedicated to promoting sustainable fashion and clothing reuse, hopes to gain momentum through ClubFest.
Cornell Thrift pursues its mission to reduce campus-wide waste and improve student welfare by redistributing reusable items, hosting periodic mending workshops and organizing trips to thrift stores. According to Jennifer Herrera ’24, thrift director, they additionally implemented Ezra’s Exchange, a closet where students can donate clothes and take clothes for free at any time.
Herrera shared that Cornell Thrift looks to actively promote its initiatives on its social media platforms in time for ClubFest, and is currently planning out events and collaborations for the coming semester.
“We hope to reach more people with our community events and inspire others to upcycle and thrift,” Herrera said. “We also want to strengthen current partnerships with thredUP and other student clubs [or] organizations and build new ones.”
Thread, Cornell’s premier fashion, art and culture magazine, will not be promoting at ClubFest this spring, as its executive board has arranged for recruitment to take place earlier through its social media page.
In response to limited funds and event capacity, Thread introduced cuts to the recruitment process in the Fall 2022 semester. However, Coren noted, a smaller team resulted in a shortage of members to work for larger departments such as art and beauty, and received feedback from rejected applicants on a sense of exclusivity conveyed by the cut.
Therefore, Thread plans to eliminate cuts in order to diminish sentiments of exclusivity and to mitigate the other issues encountered last semester, according to Coren.
“Since eliminating cuts, we are expecting a much larger general body this semester and cannot wait to work with all of the new members that will join,” Coren said. “Some things you can look forward to are a placement event to make choosing your photoshoot team more interactive and personal, and a longer post-production process to allow for more involvement of the general body.”
Whether one is searching for clubs that align with their personal interests, those that will help them make connections or foster their academic and career goals, ClubFest intends to feature a wide variety of groups to cater to all Cornellians.