Against pick-ups

Despite my love of fun, I see no reason why this cruel activity should be continued by eating clubs. It is unfair to those who are not “picked-up” to have their rooms and campus turned into a loud and unavoidable reminder that things did not go their way. It is adding insult to injury in a way that is unfair and should not be tolerated.

As a sophomore, my two roommates and I waited patiently to find out our “bicker-fate.” We each planned to get as far away as possible from the room and from campus if we were hosed. No one wants to be in the room when one roommate is miserable and the other is being celebrated. Two of us bickered the same club and the third bickered elsewhere. We figured that there would be time to make our great escape before the room turned from somber to celebratory. But this plan was thwarted by the fact that only five minutes after my one roommate was hosed from one club, the remaining two of us opened the door to shrieking club members cheering our names. We were thrilled, and my third roommate played the role of the supportive friend.

It is unfair to force students to make plans to leave if they are hosed. It is unfair to assume that everyone wants his or her room invaded and wants to have evidence of the Street on campus. The Street should remain where it is and allow students who are not picked up the chance to deal with it in their own way, in the comfort and security of their homes. Everyone deals with disappointment in different ways, and if I wanted to stay in my room and be emo, well, I should have been allowed to do that!

Perhaps the point could be made that it is part of joining a club and that when you chose to bicker a club you tacitly accept this potential outcome. But it is not only the students who are hosed that we should be concerned about. It is also the students trying to get to class (yes, there are classes on Friday) and the maintenance staff who walk in the dorms to find them trodden with shaving cream and paint. Yes, we all vow to clean up later, but in reality much of the cleaning is left to others. Pick-ups are an instance of fun and frivolity for those involved, but for everyone else on campus they are hugely disruptive.

As the defender of fun, I think that many fun alternatives could be found. Already, many of the clubs do not do pick-ups but rather have their new members report to the club. No one joining those clubs seems less happy than those joining “pick-up” clubs. The excitement and fun that awaits new members is not limited to the hour between the time they find out they are new members and the time they get to their club. If that were the case, then it would be time to reevaluate why one should even bother joining a club. It might be a tradition to have pick-ups, but traditions can be reshaped and reformed as we work toward building a campus community that is overwhelmingly positive. Not all traditions are good. For instance, I am happy to be a female member of an eating club; talk about breaking tradition. I am sure that the creative minds on campus could think of even more fun activities to replace pick-ups. Perhaps the new members could be sent clues for them to report to a non-campus, non-club location. Or the members could make funny cards to slip under their doors to notify them of their acceptance. The possibilities are endless, so why limit ourselves to a process that is more destructive than fun?

There is no defensible reason for this process to continue, and it is time to take the initiative to end it. There is no excuse to continue this practice that hurts those who aren’t accepted, and it is time that we stop letting this happen. We have three months to reconsider how we do this, so we should get started as soon as possible.

Kerry Brodie is a Near Eastern Studies major from Potomac, Md. She can be reached at kbrodie@princeton.edu.