Eating clubs will close in the fall ‘for the first time in more than a century’

The eating clubs on Prospect Avenue will cease operation for the fall semester due to COVID-19. The Graduate Interclub Council (GICC), the Undergraduate Interclub Council (ICC), and the University have agreed to close the clubs until at least Jan. 1.

Dining and social activities, along with housing, will all be suspended for the first time since 1918, when many upperclass students left the University to fight in World War I.

The GICC addressed the closures in a joint statement on the eating club website.

“We do this with a heavy heart, but recognize that the health and safety of the community must come first,” the statement wrote. “After much brainstorming and discussion between the Eating Clubs and the University, we came to the joint conclusion that closing the clubs was in everyone’s best interests.”

The University will financially support the clubs during the fall semester. No decision has yet been made regarding the spring.

All students living on campus for the fall semester are required to be on a meal plan, with the exception of students living in Spelman Hall.

The clubs have also offered their combined “250,000 square feet of well-ventilated space” to the University.

“If they require additional room for open-air classes, socially distant dining, or other purposes—we stand ready to assist. This isn’t our first global pandemic after all—we will get through this together,” said the GICC statement.

Terrace Club officers discussed the closure in an email to members on Saturday night.

“As we have for over a hundred years, we will persevere,” wrote Terrace Social Chair Enzo Dominguez ’21. “Our friends are still our friends, and we’ll always need a place to enjoy each other's company and the many pleasures of life.”

This story is breaking and will be updated as information becomes available.