A couple of weeks ago The Cavalier Daily ran an article titled “The Competition Effect,” focusing on the tendency for more popular student groups at the University to have acceptance rates lower than 25 percent. The statistics are not surprising, yet they also reveal what Dean of Students Allen Groves calls in the article “tunnel vision” — when students flock to more recognizable organizations on grounds and fail to notice the multitude of other student groups. This unfortunately leaves many students who want to be involved out of luck for one or more semesters; however, the University, The Cavalier Daily, and individual professors can all take steps to lessen this propensity for tunnel vision.
The hectic nature of University club competition is best displayed at each semester’s Activities Fair. First-years are heckled by hundreds of student groups to put down their name and email, an act that may cause students to remain on a club’s listserv for quite some time. The atmosphere can be both overwhelming and exhausting, as there is little chance that students will discover every organization.
The University should tackle this issue by taking steps to provide more opportunities for students to discover potential clubs. For instance, if there are multiple activities fairs rather than just one, students will have more opportunities to explore. Another option is to separate these several fairs by the type of group such as academic, community service, etc. Thus, students can not only focus on particular interests and find the club that is right for them but also broaden their choices of potential clubs to join besides just the most popular ones.
The Cavalier Daily can also contribute to this effort, perhaps through extended coverage of clubs besides the usual Honor and Student Council articles. Yet, the problem with extended coverage is it might not necessarily draw the highest readership among students. A solution to this would be for The Cavalier Daily to create a “club spotlight” each week to recognize one or two lesser-known clubs at the University that students should consider joining. Over time, by reading The Cavalier Daily, students can become more aware of some groups they may never have known about.
Professors too can help students learn more about the clubs around them. Several lecture course professors already invite students into their classrooms to introduce a particular organization to the class. This practice should be extended to other courses, as it will increase lesser-known club visibility.
I want to clarify that I am not arguing that the competition should be drastically lessened in any way among these popular organizations; rather, I am arguing that students must be aware of their opportunities in order to combat tunnel vision. Competition and the resulting low acceptance rates for clubs are important because they present real world scenarios in which students must compete by filling out applications, and occasionally interviewing in order to be accepted. These scenarios also help introduce to University first-years to what many of them have yet to experience after their high-achieving high school careers: failure.
On the other hand, we should question the selectivity of some student organizations. While organizations such as The Cavalier Daily or performance groups such as the Whethermen seek out a specific type of talent, other organizations like Student Council or Madison House are based on serving the University community. Do these organizations have the right to deny someone who wants to help out his fellow students merely based on an interview or written application? Possible solutions, though controversial, include using a lottery to pick new members or enlisting the help of a professor to determine whether the students genuinely want to be involved or not.
At the end of the day, however, it is the students who are responsible for their own involvement in organizations at the University. If students find themselves facing rejection, they can either apply to the same club the next semester or year, or they can take initiative and seek out other groups they would like to join.
Students that are not involved but want to be should take the initiative. Where the University, professors, and The Cavalier Daily come in is to provide students with the resources to achieve such goals. With a more active process, more active coverage, and more individual professor involvement, students will have a better chance of finding organizations where they feel at home.
Jared Fogel is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at j.fogel@cavalierdaily.com.
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