Quad sees 40 percent jump

Quad Graduate Board chairman Dinesh Maneyapanda ’94 said in an email that the response to the fee decrease was more muted than expected, calling the increases “modest.”

“The initial response to our lowered fees seems somewhat lower than we were hoping, but we plan to continue to engage students going forward, to ensure every student who wants to join a club is able to do so,” he said.

In recent years Quad has been the only club not to provide sign-in figures to The Daily Princetonian. In 2010 and 2011, the club only noted that the number of new members were “comparable” to previous years. In 2009, the ‘Prince’ was given an estimate that around 50 students joined Quad.

President Katie Knorr ’13 and president emeritus Julia Blount ’12 announced that Quad intended to match the fees of an unlimited residential college meal plan for the 2012-13 school year. According to the club’s website, the club made this initiative to better serve students that are discouraged from joining a club due to financial pressures.

“Given our pledge to match the cost of the University meal plan, we think it’s a no-lose decision for sophomores,” Maneyapanda explained. “We’ll continue to look for ways to demonstrate our value to them.”

Maneyapanda said the club hopes to see a more significant increase in club membership after the second round is completed.

“We’re still below capacity and would love to encourage more students who are considering joining a club to let Quad show them the many benefits of club life,” Maneyapanda explained.

The results of second round sign-ins could potentially determine the future financial viability of the club. The net assets for Quad started at $991,981 in July 2009 and ended at $938,177 in July 2010, according to tax returns, a decrease of $53,804 over fiscal year 2010.

However, several first round sign-ins have noted that they learned about the new membership price after already deciding to join Quad. Knorr and Blount announced the rate reduction on Jan. 12.

“I liked Quad’s close-knit community,” Sheng Zhou ’14 said. “The new membership rates were a nice surprise, but they didn’t influence my decision.”

On the other hand, Zhou did acknowledge that the membership rates should make the club “much more accessible to the campus community.”

Rosemary Wang ’14 also noted that the cut in fees was not necessarily a crucial factor for many sign-ins, stating that she has not yet met anyone who has joined primarily for financial reasons.

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“Even before the rates were announced, I fell in love with Quad. There was no other option for me,” she explained. “Did [the reduced rates] make me feel somewhat better? Yes, but it was not a primary reason.”

Wang added that she thought that the new membership policies will not change the type of students who sign-in to Quad. Wang is the director of national advertising for the ‘Prince.’

“Quad has a diverse group of people with no affiliations,” she said. “We don’t attract specific numbers of certain types of people. If you feel like you belong to the club, you join.”

Knorr, vice president Olubanke Martins ’13 and treasurer Allie Harjo ’13 did not respond to requests to comment. Harjo is a senior photographer for the ‘Prince.’