Street Week 2025 kicked off on Sunday, Jan. 26 with clubs beginning to host events for prospective members. Building on the increased sophomore participation seen last year among the Class of 2026, the Class of 2027 is expected to continue this upward trend in participation in Street Week activities.
Higher participation has expanded Street Week festivities, but club spots remain limited, lowering acceptance rates.
During Street Week, which usually occurs in late January and early February, eating clubs hold events to recruit new members. Cannon Dial Elm, Cap and Gown, Cottage, Ivy, Tiger Inn (TI), and Tower Clubs conduct a selective membership process called “bicker,” whereas Charter, Cloister Inn, Colonial, Quadrangle, and Terrace Clubs allow students to sign in and join based on various lottery systems.
During bicker, which takes place over three days, sophomores, juniors, and seniors meet current members in various clubs through a series of formal and informal conversations. This is followed by member or committee discussions that determine which students each club accepts.
“We’re expecting similar numbers to last year,” Vincent Jiang '25, President of the Interclub Council (ICC), said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian this past November.
Historic firsts occurred last Street Week:
Tower accepted 165 bickerees in 2024, marking its largest class since at least 2001.
TI had the lowest acceptance rate of all 11 clubs, making it the most selective bicker club on the street, narrowly edging out Ivy. This is the first time TI has held this distinction since double bicker was established for all Bicker clubs in 2017. Double bicker allows students to bicker two different eating clubs in one cycle.
For the first time since at least 2001, more students bickered TI than Cap and Gown.
Nearly 80 percent of the Class of 2026 took part in Street Week last year, the largest number of sophomore participants the ICC has seen in the past decade. Higher participation has resulted in both sign-in and bicker clubs offering more opportunities for students to get to know current members and insight into the culture of each club during Street Week. There are 46 Street Week events this semester.
Changes during Street Week 2025
These decreasing acceptance rates have prompted the ICC, composed of the eleven undergraduate eating club presidents, to assess how to make Street Week more accommodating for more prospective members.
Charter Club has undergone notable changes to their selective sign-in process.
Charter is the only eating club that utilizes a selective sign-in process, in which points are awarded to prospective members when they demonstrate interest in the club by attending events.
During the inaugural sophomore eating club panel held by the ICC, former Charter Club President Anna Johns ’25 announced that while Charter will hold 14 point-earning opportunities as they have done historically, for the first time, 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.
The change comes after Charter’s process was criticized last year by students who were left disappointed after ranking Charter as their first-choice club and attending at least 12 of 14 point opportunities, only to be denied membership.
The ICC is also hoping to ensure everyone is matched into an eating club, a goal initially proposed by the former ICC and Charter Club President Mia Beams ’24. 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.
The Group Sign-In feature, which allows a group of friends to sign into a club together, also serves as an option for bickerees.
This option is not frequently utilized. In a statement to the ‘Prince’, the ICC reported that during Street Week 2024, a total of five groups were created, with 25 students opting to sign in as part of a group.
Registration for Spring Street Week 2025 opened on Sunday, Jan. 26 at noon. Selective Club choices must be made by Saturday, Feb. 1 at noon.
Bicker will be held from Sunday, Feb. 2 through Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Students can rank their club preferences starting on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. and no later than Thursday, Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. Club decisions will be available on Friday, Feb. 7 at 10 a.m.
Justus Wilhoit is an associate Audience editor and senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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