The Interclub Council (ICC) held its inaugural sophomore eating club panel on Friday, which was moderated by the Class of 2027 Council. All eleven eating club presidents, as well as representatives from the Brown Hall co-op, came together to inform sophomores about the various dining options available on campus ahead of Street Week, the week at the beginning of the spring semester when many sophomores will join an eating club.
After record-high Street Week participation last year, eating club presidents said they are expecting similar numbers again. The ICC has made some changes this year, though — notably, the club matching algorithm will require participants to rank every sign-in club. Charter will also introduce new efforts to reel in the competitiveness of their “selective sign-in.”
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, ICC President and President of Tower Club Vincent Jiang ’25 said that the ICC’s aim in hosting the panel was to clear up rumors about the club selection process, and to give the clubs a platform to advocate for themselves.
“I think that the street could definitely improve with transparency,” Jiang said. “I think that a lot of information so far comes through word of mouth. This event was something we really wanted to do where everyone would be able to ask their questions directly and get an answer immediately from all the presidents.”
The event began with a presentation of the various dining options available to sophomores as future upperclassmen. These options include: staying on a University dining plan, which all undergraduates are required to have in their first and second years; joining an eating club; joining a co-op; or going “independent,” where a student does not purchase a dining plan and is instead responsible for procuring food on their own.
Presidents of the eleven eating clubs and representatives from the Brown Hall co-op — no other co-ops were represented — all gave their “pitch” to the audience, offering a brief introduction of themselves, the history of their club or co-op, and reasons to join.
During Street Week, which usually occurs in late January and early February, eating clubs hold events to recruit new members. Cannon Dial Elm, Cottage, Cap & Gown, Ivy, Tiger Inn, and Tower Clubs require students to undergo a selective membership process called “bicker,” while Quadrangle, Cloister Inn, Colonial, Terrace, and Charter Clubs allow students to sign in and join based on a lottery system.
Last year, a total of 1,193 students — about 80 percent of the Class of 2026 — participated in Street Week, the largest number of sophomore participants that the ICC had seen in the past decade. Throughout recent years, higher participation and limited spots have led to decreasing acceptance rates in most clubs, a trend that could continue when the Class of 2027 takes to the street.
“We’re expecting similar numbers to last year,” Jiang said. “I think all the presidents have learned the lessons from last year’s Street Week. So we’re definitely focused on making sure that we replicate the successes and improve on the areas where we can improve.”
Charter is the only eating club that utilizes a selective sign-in process that awards points to prospective members for demonstrating interest in the club, including by attending events like coffee chats before winter break and during Street Week.
Some students criticized Charter’s process following last year’s Street Week. Numerous students who spoke to the ’Prince’ were left disappointed after ranking Charter as their first-choice club and attending at least 12 of 14 point opportunities, only to be denied
As a result, Charter president Anna Johns announced at the panel that the club would be making changes this year: Charter will hold 14 point-earning opportunities again; however, this year, the eating club will cap the number of points an individual can receive at nine.
“We hope that what this will do is reduce some pressure, you don’t have to go to all 14 events, because we stop counting at nine,” Johns said.
Charter’s process is non-evaluative, so if more students get nine points and rank Charter first than there is space for in the club, membership will be selected via a lottery.
One area of improvement for the ICC is ensuring everyone is matched into an eating club. Last year, the ICC’s computer system did not place a small number of students into a club.
“We are looking to require every potential member to rank all the sign-in clubs to make sure that we get 100 percent placements,” Jiang said.
In previous years, students only had to rank two sign-ins in addition to any clubs they may have bickered. Though the change may mean that a student could be placed in a sign-in club they would rather not be a member of, students can choose to drop a club after results are announced if they’re not satisfied.
During the second half of the event, students had the opportunity to conduct one-on-one conversations with presidents, officers, and current members to ask additional questions.
Wilson Moyer ’27 said in an interview with the ‘Prince’ that the event allowed him to think about external factors for why students may or may not join an eating club. During the panel, some eating club presidents shared stories about staying close with friends who were not in the same club as themselves.
“I talked to the Tower president,” Moyer told the ‘Prince.’ “That was really helpful, just learning more about the clubs. I really appreciate this opportunity. I can also see the intimidation side of it as well, like the friend group screw-up being sort of the stakes involved.”
Though the event aimed to provide clarity about the eating clubs and co-ops, Lana Kim ’27 said in an interview with the ’Prince’ that she remains somewhat overwhelmed.
“It honestly has been a little overwhelming,” she said. “I say this is representative of a lot of other sophomore feelings, because I get a lot of people also saying they are stressed and overwhelmed about bicker emails.”
In spite of continued criticism of bicker, Jiang said in an interview that he hopes to strengthen people’s belief in the process.
“We just want to continue to maintain the campus community’s trust in the process,” he said.
Justus Wilhoit is an associate Audience editor and senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’
Katelynn Lee is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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