Clubs attract 970 members; nine full after second round

Spring Bicker and sign-ins ended this weekend with 396 students joining Bicker clubs and 226 students joining sign-ins on the second round. This is in addition to the 348 from first round sign-ins. 970 students joined clubs in total this spring.

Last year, 408 students joined Bicker clubs and 410 and 94 signed in during first and second rounds respectively.

Cottage Club welcomed the most new members among the Bicker clubs — 94 of 114 hopefuls, according to Cottage Bicker chair Mike Higgins '01.

This year also marked the first time that Cottage accepted a section evenly split between men and women.

Ivy was the most selective club, accepting 65 of 145 bickerees, according to club president Mark Reinhardt '01.

Tiger Inn accepted 65 members out of 93 bickerees, club president Ewen McAlpine '01 said. Cap and Gown Club, with 164 bickerees, had the largest Bicker class. Though they took 84, they still had to turn away 80 students, according to Cap Bicker chair Jon Luick '01.

"We had an exceptionally large bicker class this year," Luick said. "We expected to have a lot of interest because we have tried to have many cool parties this past year. However, we were really pleasantly surprised with the large number that came out. In one way, it's cool that so many people showed interest. But also, it's sad that we had to turn so many people away."

Tower accepted 84 new members. The total number of students who bickered was unavailable for publication.

"It's not that more students are joining clubs, but rather that the distribution of club membership is changing," said Inter-club adviser Alice Teti '00. The more members a club has, the more it collects in membership dues, Teti said. The more money the clubs gather, the more services they can provide to members. "The clubs are businesses," she said.

Bicker clubs also traditionally hold fall Bicker sessions, though the decision to hold fall Bicker is made by each club individually, Teti said. Approximately 15 new members join each club through fall Bicker, but each club decides how many new members it will welcome based on how many vacancies it has. Last year, Cap, Ivy and Tower held fall Bicker.

Colonial and Cloister clubs were the most popular second round sign-in clubs, both filling up their membership rolls to 95 and putting 15 on their wait lists, according to Teti.

Last year, Colonial was also the most popular second round sign-in club.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Colonial and Cloister welcomed 41 and 29 new members in the second round respectively.

Cloister president Brian Romanzo '02 attributed the club's popularity to a variety of factors, including "the parties, the DJ's, the bands," he said. "And the food too."

"The hope is that everybody who's on the waitlist will be in a club by early fall," Teti said. "They'll take people off the waitlist one at a time."

Campus Club added 28 students over the weekend, while Quadrangle Club took 18 — its new class totals 35 members, the lowest of all clubs on the 'Street.'

During first round sign-ins, approximately 50 students listed only one or two clubs on their club sign-in sheet, and so did not get into a sign-in club during that round. Approximately 25 people did the same thing during second round sign-ins, Teti said, and thus did not get into a club.

Quadrangle and Campus clubs still have spots left for prospective members, Teti said. She encouraged students who want to join Quad or Campus to contact the club officers.

"There's space . . . for everyone who wants to be in a club," she said.