Eating clubs

The eating clubs at Princeton University are private institutions resembling both dining halls and social houses, where the majority of Princeton upperclassmen take their meals. [*cite news | first=Winnie | last=Hu | title= More Than a Meal Plan | url= http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/education/edlife/princeton.html | work=The New York Times | date= July 29, 2007 | accessdate=2008-10-06 ] Each club occupies a large mansion on Prospect Avenue, one of the main roads that runs through the Princeton campus, with the exception of Terrace Club which is just around the corner on Washington Road. This area is known to students colloquially as "The Street." The eating clubs first garnered widespread national attention as a setting in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920 debut novel, "This Side of Paradise", and more recently, they appeared prominently in the best-selling 2004 novel, "The Rule of Four".

Princeton undergraduates currently have their choice of ten eating clubs. [ [http://www.princeton.edu/main/campuslife/housingdining/eatingclubs/ Princeton University Housing & Dining: Eating Clubs] ] Five clubs—University Cottage Club, Cap and Gown Club, The Ivy Club, Tiger Inn ("TI"), and Princeton Tower Club—are selective, choosing their members through a process called "bicker." Five clubs - Cloister Inn, Princeton Charter Club, Colonial Club, Quadrangle Club, and Terrace Club - are non-selective. These clubs' members are chosen through a lottery process called "sign-in." While nearly three-quarters of upperclassmen (third- and fourth-year students) at Princeton take their meals at the eating clubs, the clubs are private institutions and are not affiliated with Princeton University.

ocial functions

The primary function of the eating clubs is to serve as dining halls for the majority of third- and fourth-year students. Unlike fraternities and sororities, to which the clubs are sometimes compared, all of the clubs admit both male and female members, and members (with the exception of some of the undergraduate officers) do not live in the mansion.

The eating clubs also provide many services for their members. Each club, in general, has a living room, library, computer cluster, billiard room, and tap room. Members frequently use club facilities for studying and socializing. Each club also has a large lawn, either in front of or behind the mansion, and on days with nice weather, one will often see Princeton students playing various sports on club lawns.

On most Thursday and Saturday nights, the Street is the primary social venue for Princeton students, and each club will have music and/or various themed parties which are generally open to all University students, not just members. Friday nights are much more low-key at Princeton, and clubs that are open are usually open only to members. Each club also has semiformal events and formal dinners and dances.

Events are held annually at every club. These events include: Lawnparties, when clubs hire bands to play outdoors on their lawns on the Sunday before fall classes begin; Winter Formals, which take place on the last Saturday before winter break; Initiations, where new sophomore recruits are introduced to club life (usually in early February); and Houseparties, a three-day festival at the end of spring term during which each club has a Friday night formal, a Saturday night semiformal, a champagne brunch on Sunday morning, and another round of Lawnparties on Sunday afternoon. Notable artists that have played at Lawnparties in recent years include Lupe Fiasco, Matt Nathanson, Lifehouse, Maroon 5, Rihanna, Jurassic 5, They Might Be Giants, Ben Kweller, Sister Hazel, Fountains of Wayne, Howie Day, Eve 6, The Walkmen, and New Found Glory.

History

Fraternities and secret societies were banned from Princeton from the middle of the nineteenth century until the 1980s, with the exception of the university's political, literary, and debating societies, the American Whig Society ("Whig") and the Cliosophic Society ("Clio"), which had been founded at Princeton before the American Revolution.

Eating clubs arose from dining societies, in which Princeton students gathered to take meals at a common table. These groups, often whimsically named, rarely lasted longer than a few years, disappearing when their founders graduated.

Towards the end of the 19th century the eating clubs began to recruit new members as old ones left and also began to lease or buy permanent facilities. Ivy Club was the first of the permanent eating clubs. It was followed shortly after by University Cottage Club. This process was greatly aided by Moses Taylor Pyne, a powerful and beloved Trustee, who gave financial assistance to most of the eating clubs during their development. An early member of Ivy Club, Pyne was heavily involved in the early development of Cap and Gown Club, Campus Club, Elm Club, Cloister Inn, and many others. The new clubs (along with other new extracurricular activities) gradually eroded the central role that Whig and Clio played in undergraduate student life. The decline in popularity and energy of the societies led to their merger into the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, which still exists today.

Twenty eating clubs have existed since Ivy Club opened in 1879, though never more than 18 at any one time. At various points, many of the eating clubs fell on hard times and closed their doors or merged with others. The now-defunct eating clubs include Campus Club, Cannon Club, Elm Club, Key and Seal Club, Dial Lodge, Arch Club, Gateway Club, Court Club, Arbor Inn, and Prospect Club. Dial, Elm, and Cannon Clubs merged to form DEC Club, which operated from 1990 to 1998. The most recent club to close was Campus Club, which shut down in 2005. Alumni of Dial, Elm, and Cannon Clubs plan to reopen Cannon in February 2009 [cite web|url=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/05/29/21258/| title=DEC unsure of 2009 Cannon reopening |publisher=The Daily Princetonian|date=May 29, 2008|accessdate=2008-07-09] , though the opening of the club may be deferred until 2010.

Defunct eating clubs have often been purchased by the University for use as academic buildings. Dial Lodge is now the Bendheim Center for Finance; Elm Club temporarily housed the Classics Department and European Cultural Studies Program and is soon to be the new home of the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding. Cannon Club was briefly converted into Notestein Hall, an office for the University Writing Center, but has since been repurchased by alumni. The donation of Campus Club to the University for use as a space for social events was completed in 2006.

In 1979, undergraduate Sally Frank filed suit against then all-male clubs Ivy Club, Cottage Club, and Tiger Inn for gender discrimination. While Cottage chose to coeducate during the intervening years, Ivy Club and Tiger Inn both became co-ed organizations in 1991 as a result of the lawsuit, 22 years after Princeton first admitted female students.

The eating clubs have attracted controversy, being viewed as elitist institutions. A major part of the controversy was the difference in cost between joining an eating club and buying a university dining plan. By 2006, the difference was over $2,000 for most clubs, and this difference was not covered by university financial aid. In November, 2006, Princeton administrators announced that they would increase upperclass financial aid packages by $2,000, in order to cover the difference in costs. [cite web|url=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/11/29/news/16762.shtml|title=Nassau Hall unveils new club financial aid plan |publisher=The Daily Princetonian|date=November 29, 2006|accessdate=2006-12-11]

Historical list of Princeton eating clubs

Timeline of Princeton eating clubs

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from:1879 till:$now text:The Ivy Club from:1886 till:$now text:University Cottage Club from:1890 till:$now text:Tiger Inn from:1890 till:$now text:Cap and Gown Club from:1891 till:$now text:Colonial Club from:1895 till:1975 text:Cannon Club from:1895 till:1973 text:Elm Club from:1900 till:2005 text:Campus Club from:1901 till:$now text:Princeton Charter Club from:1901 till:$now text:Quadrangle Club from:1902 till:$now text:Princeton Tower Club from:1904 till:$now text:Terrace Club from:1904 till:1968 text:Key and Seal Club from:1907 till:1988 text:Dial Lodge from:1911 till:1917 text:Arch Club from:1912 till:1972 text:Cloister Inn from:1913 till:1937 text:Gateway Club from:1921 till:1964 text:Court Club from:1923 till:1939 text:Arbor Inn

barset:break $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip from:1978 till:1989 $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip from:1977 till:$now from:1941 till:1959 text:Prospect Club

barset:break $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip $skip from:1990 till:1998 text:DEC

Joining clubs

Bicker

The five selective eating clubs pick new members in a process called "bicker." Bicker begins each spring semester during the week following intersession break, when interested sophomores come to the club they would like to join. The bicker process varies widely by club, ranging from staid interviews conducted by club members to raucous games designed to foster competition among potential inductees. Following two or three evenings of bicker activities, the club membership selects new members in closed sessions, the conduct of which varies from club to club. The clubs initiate their new members the following weekend.

Additionally, some bicker clubs conduct a smaller "Fall Bicker" for third and fourth year students. Admission numbers during fall bicker are typically much lower than those of spring bicker, as fall bicker is a chance for clubs to adjust their membership numbers to account for members who may have dropped club membership during the spring semester or over the summer.

Bicker clubs hold parties with restricted admission more frequently than their sign-in counterparts. Such events often require that non-members present a pass, a colored card bearing the club's insignia, in order to enter. Non-members may also gain entry to parties at some bicker clubs by entering with a member, or through membership in the Inter-Club Council.

ign-ins

The five non-selective eating clubs pick new members in a process called "sign-ins."

Students rank the five sign-in clubs, or wait-lists for those clubs, in their order of preference. If more students choose a club as their first choice than that club is able to accept as members, a random lottery is used to determine which students are accepted. The remaining students are then placed into their second choice club or wait list, provided it has not filled, in which case they would be placed into their third choice, and so on.

Students who choose to bicker and are not admitted to a club via sign-in are immediately placed into a second-round sign-in where they will be placed into their top choice of club that has not filled. While not every student will get into their first choice of club, either through sign-in or bicker, every student seeking membership has been placed into one of the clubs, though sometimes after a significant waiting period.

Alternatives

For upperclassmen who choose not to join the eating clubs, there are alternative social/eating options. These include:

* University dining facilities, usually by drawing back into an underclass residential college. Residential Advisors in the colleges can be eating club members, but are required by the University to take some of their meals in their college. Starting in the 2007–2008 Academic year, upperclassmen have the option of joining one of the new four year residential colleges instead of an eating club. The four year colleges are Whitman College and Mathey College. (Butler College will also be a four-year residential college when it opens in fall 2009.) Both colleges have new dining halls that are more competitive with the food offered in the clubs.
* The Center for Jewish Life, a Kosher dining hall.
* Independent life. Students who cook for themselves are referred to as "independents." While kitchens are located in many dormitories on campus, the most favorable option of independents are the Spelman Halls. These dorms are composed mostly of four-person suites (but there are some doubles) with private baths and kitchens.
* Student Co-ops
** The Two Dickinson Street Co-op, a 40-member vegetarian co-op located immediately off campus in a university-owned house.
** The Brown Co-op, a non-vegetarian co-op located in Brown Hall, an on-campus dormitory building.
*Fraternities and sororities are a complementary social option to the eating clubs, but their organizations are not recognized by the University. Most fraternity/sorority members also join eating clubs, as they do not have their own fraternity/sorority houses.

References

External links

* [http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/eat-club.html Mudd Manuscript Library: Eating Clubs Records, 1879-2005] , provides a history and list of materials in the library.
* [http://etc.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/eating_clubs.html Eating clubs] , section from Alexander Leitch, "A Princeton Companion", Princeton University Press (1978).
* [http://etcweb.princeton.edu/Campus/chap11.html Chapter XI: The Eating Clubs of Prospect] , from [http://etcweb.princeton.edu/Campus/ Princeton University, An Interactive Campus History, 1746-1996] ; provides a history and several photos of each club.