By: Avi Strauss and Shoshy Ciment  | 

Fall 2017 Club Lists Released, Beren Adds 27 New Clubs

The Beren Campus added 27 new clubs this semester, based on the finalized list of clubs released by the Office of Student Life. Some of these new clubs filled gaps left by the nine clubs that did not apply for renewal at the beginning of this year or were not renewed as clubs, while others represent new student interest areas of the Jewish community and the ever-changing technological front.

The newly-minted clubs bring the Beren campus club total to the highest it’s been in at least three years. At 108 clubs, the total is up from 90 last year. Overall, the Wilf campus added three clubs, bringing its campus club total to 96.

Curiously, despite the increasing undergraduate student body of Sy Syms School of Business over the past five years, its club numbers have remained essentially flat over the last three years, and represent two of the three lowest totals amongst the seven councils.

The increase in clubs on the Beren Campus was the result of the Stern College for Women Student Council (SCWSC) and the Torah Activities Council (TAC) adding ten and eight clubs, respectively. SCWSC accounts for the greatest share of clubs on campus, as the council sponsors 73 total clubs. This makes sense, given SCWSC shares many of the responsibilities of the uptown the Yeshiva Student Union (YSU) and the Yeshiva College Student Association (YCSA), at the Beren campus.

Some of the new clubs that were added through SCWSC include the Diversity Club, the Movie Macs, Perspective Magazine, the Slam Poetry Club, and the Rube Goldberg Club. Amongst the terminated SCWSC clubs are Shield News, the Social Justice Society, and the Persian Culture Club. Although TAC’s Eruv club was terminated this year, some of the new TAC sponsored clubs such as Arabic and the Rambam, Chabad Club Lamplighters, and the Meditation Society are up and running.

Clubs gain approval by submitting a petition with a minimum of 20 undergraduate signatures to the Office of Student Life. Those petitions are then voted on by the general assembly’s of either campus (the council presidents and the Senior Chair of the Student Life Committee), who decide to approve or reapprove a club for official status based on a variety of factors like its performance in past semesters and its appropriateness for the YU undergraduate student body, among other reasons.

Once a club is approved, the presidents of the respective student councils work together to determine which clubs they will sponsor. Club sponsorship is a key way in which clubs acquire funding from the councils for their events during the year.

The number of clubs that have a presence on both the uptown and downtown campuses ticked up just slightly, to 56 from 54. Often, these clubs have co-presidents or liaisons between the campuses to coordinate larger, co-ed events like Sharsheret’s Cake Wars.

Interestingly, it seems the notion of “co-sponsorship”when multiple councils on the same campus commit to overseeing a club has returned to the Wilf Campus. This year, eight Wilf clubs will be sponsored by at least two councils.

The only club with co-sponsorship at Beren is SHEM, the Student Holocaust Education Movement, which receives sponsorship from all seven undergraduate councils.  

The Office of Student Life did not immediately return a request for comment.