With 118 active groups sponsored by the Council on Student Organizations this fall, one has to wonder what all of these clubs could possibly be doing. While many do not have a very visible presence on campus, their mere existence is a testament to their membership's passion for and commitment to their respective activities.
The COSO student groups range from the academic to the quirkily random, from the Nathan Smith Pre-medical Society to Dartmouth Union of Bogglers. With groups that don't require auditions receiving college funding, a cynic might speculate that many of these groups pop up due to the desire for free dinners rather than a love of their activity. Liz Agosto, associate director of the Collis Center and Student Activities, said that some students do try to manipulate the system. Through a comprehensive recognition process, funding proposals and regular check-ins, however, the COSO office ensures that funding goes only to groups "that are bringing something new to campus and adding to the social life."
The organizational aspects of club creation and maintenance also ensure that the student groups that exist are really putting an effort forth. The D-plan, however, presents a constant challenge to executive boards. Agosto said students "don't plan for winter because [they] don't know who's here. So every term is a fresh start ... There's always a chance that they'll disappear ... or revitalize." She maintained that for student groups to be effective they have to have an invested base: "Most groups have at least a core group of five excited people who work very hard to push groups through from term to term and build excitement."
The Ceili Irish Dancers exemplify a group of students whose enthusiasm for their hobby is infectious and apparent. Kelsey Noonan '08 started the group in 2005. She and other experienced Ceili dancers assume the responsibilities of both instructors and choreographers. They teach beginners basic skipping forms and beginning jigs in Fall term and are ready for performances by the winter. Nish Ali '12, who joined Ceili this fall said, "It's been plenty fun to jump and hop around, stumble most of the time and fight to keep my hands by my sides."
Though it's a lot of work on the part of both the teachers and the beginners to learn the dances, frustration is minimal. "People are generally just really happy to be doing it," Shannon Hextrum '09, the group's leader, said.
Hextrum also noted that Irish dancing fills a niche at Dartmouth because it is accessible to a broader audience than other forms of more contemporary dance such as hip-hop. Kids, grandparents and college students alike can enjoy the Riverdance-like dancing in which steps that are suggestive of sex moves are largely unintentional and few and far between.
Though Hextrum noted that the Blitz list is "a collection of the most Irish names ever" this is in fact a coincidence. The group is composed of people of Irish descent, those who just wish they were (Hextrum asserts that she has no Irish heritage but, "I want to be Irish") and those who simply like the dancing. When asked what drew her to Ceili, new member Riley Kane '12 said, "whenever I hear The Boondock Saints theme song I want to dance like crazy. But I don't know how, and that is what attracted me to Ceili dancing."
But what if a student gets out of class and is just dying to fill his or her free time with still more intellectually rigorous activity? What does Dartmouth offer for the over-exercisers of the mental variety? The answer is, a lot. Take for example the Mathematics Society.
The group started out with undergraduates presenting to each other about mathematical concepts, but since its founding in 2004 by Jonathon Huang '06 it has evolved. Now the group meets weekly for Putnam training sessions followed by "Talks in Math and Pizza." "It's just a nice aside for those who are not in the math community here at Dartmouth to come and take a closer look at the great possibilities that a math education here can provide to them," said Jeremy Pham '11.
According to Pham, however, the real "high-yield activity" is the Putnam training program in which Professor Carl Pomerance of the math department teaches problem-solving strategies. Students then apply these strategies and work on problems. "It's hard to describe, but a lot of Math activities can really be bonding experiences," Pham said.
There are no prerequisites for the Putnam training sessions, but as one might expect, they tend to be fairly self-selecting. "The people who come are usually a fairly even mix between CS and Mathematics majors, with a lot of Physics majors in the crowd as well," Pham said. Though he adds, "I think there might've been a Govy major at our first meeting."
Pham, however, knows that challenging math problems isn't everyone's idea of a good time. "I'm not going to go, 'Hey, dude you're a [...] loser if you don't like solving problems' or anything like that," Pham said. "You got to have fun doing the things that you do. Luckily for us, there's a demand for hard-core mathematical problem solving here at Dartmouth -- and we're here to provide that."
Members of the Creative Gaming Club find a similar opportunity for mental stimulation, but it occurs apart from their classroom material. The Creative Gaming Club meets each week on Saturdays in Occum Commons. Members get the opportunity to play strategy-based board games including classic games such as Risk as well as Eurogaming favorites like Caylus, Powergrid and Carcasonne. The unifying quality of these games is that they require critical reasoning and thinking numerous turns in advance in order to succeed.
President Yuriy Novodvorskiy '09 said that he first attended a meeting because he got a Blitz and wanted to see what Creative Gaming was all about. He became hooked because the games "are a good way to use your head for strategy and planning -- a good opportunity to work your brain."
Creative Gaming's major event of the term is Dartcon, a gaming extravaganza hosted by Creative Gaming and located at Alpha Theta. For this event, 50 to 100 people come out of the gaming woodwork to spend a weekend engaging in the traditional Creative Gaming board games as well as less strategy-based entertainment such as Playstation and Wii. Creative Gaming also brings famous gamers to campus, such as game developer Jared Sorenson, to round out the event.
Overall, Novodvorskiy asserts that the Creative Gaming group is an intellectual one, but is certainly not exclusive as members needn't have any previous experience with the games. Even members who have been active in Creative Gaming for many terms will still be exposed to new games as members learn how to play together.
While each student group at Dartmouth adds its own "je ne sais quoi" to the atmosphere of the campus, one group that particularly stands out is the Medieval Enthusiasts at Dartmouth (nodding to medieval rage with the club's acronym). MEAD is tied to the worldwide Society for Creative Anachronism , which is divided regionally. Here in New Hampshire we are located in the Barony of Stonemarch. In this realm Dartmouth is known as the College of Knottyng Cross, a name that connotes the crossing of the Connecticut and the White Rivers. "To some it evokes the word 'naughty,'" James Oakley '11, the club's leader, added.
Members of the SCA get a chance to act the part of a medieval person as they learn about life in the middle ages. "There are a lot of things that went on in those times that you don't see anymore," Oakley said. "It's fun to pretend that you're in medieval times for a little." The pretending goes quite deep and many members adopt personas with names and interests appropriate to the medieval age (these are not meant to be people who actually did exist in Medieval times but rather people who could have existed).
Along with fencing, making traditional medieval clothes (known as "garb") and bringing medieval experts from the area to teach workshops on activities like calligraphy and illumination, MEAD also puts on a medieval feast that is open to campus called the Inn at Knottyngs Crossing (to be held this term at the DOC House on Occum Pond on November 22nd). The event is highly anticipated by the members of MEAD. Taylor Campbell '11, the club's treasurer and former president, clarifies the meaning behind the feast: "When I say feasting I mean seriously feasting ... last term we had three entire chickens leftover."
In contrast to extravagant feasts, the Dartmouth Union of Bogglers keeps its goals simple. "Our sole directive is to play Boggle because it's a fun game," Michael Adelman '10, the group's treasurer, said. "Basically, we strive for a very laid-back and friendly atmosphere where people can meet other Boggle enthusiasts and take an hour to relax and laugh on dirty words that come up on the Boggle board."
Like many other student groups, attendance at the Union of Bogglers fluctuates. Adelman, however, noted that people keep coming back because they appreciate the relaxing effects of a few games of Boggle. He also credited the Union of Bogglers' ability to bring together a variety of students from different sectors of campus. "It's a group that brings together a pretty diverse group of students who don't usually run into each other much in their day-to-day lives," Adelman said. "I don't know how many other campus organizations can say they have both ROTC members and Panarchists around the same table debating whether 'midwifery' is a word, but I don't think there's many."
These student groups are just a tiny cross-section of the COSO offerings. There may be very few generalizing qualities about clubs as disparate as the Mathematics Society and the Medieval Enthusiasts at Dartmouth, but there is a consistency in the passion that their members share for their respective activities. When so much of college life can be filled with resum-builders, these students have put in the time and energy necessary to enjoy their unique interests and share them with the broader community.
Katy is a writer for The Mirror.
