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When Marisha Doan '01 first arrived on campus in August, she knew she wanted to join one or more of the college's many clubs or student organizations. An a cappella singing group with the catchy name Instrumentally Challenged first caught her attention, "mainly," she says, "because it was a Five College group and coed." Doan reports that since joining the group last fall she's had a wonderful time meeting new people who like to make music together.
Tara Pepis '99, a member of four college clubs, says that club membership is essential at Smith to create a diversion from students' immersion in studies. "[Club membership] is very important for me," says Pepis, who belongs to the computer science, theatre and film clubs as well as a computer graphics club called Digital Delirium. "When you join a club, you get a chance to meet people. After you get settled in here at Smith, you want to join something. You don't want to just sit in your room."
"The purpose of Crapapella is to provide a safe, supportive environment for Smith College's vocally challenged and to serve as a comic alternative to other a cappella groups on campus," says the group's president, Stacie Lynne Clark '98. As for the group's novel name, "it comes from two things," she says. "First, what we do, which is sing a cappella. Second, from what we sound like, which is crap."
Membership in clubs and organizations is a tradition at Smith that dates back to the Alpha Society, formed by the class of 1881. Elizabeth von Klemperer '44, Esther Cloudman Dunn Professor Emeritus of English, says that even during World War II, when she was an undergraduate and students were busy helping the war effort by volunteering to work on farms or hospitals, she found time to sing in the choir and take part in the Drama Club. Von Klemperer remembers her mother, Catharine McCollester Gallaher '14, talking about her Smith club memberships, too. "My mother was oh-so-clubby," says von Klemperer. "She was an Orangeman [member of the Society of Orangemen] and she belonged to the Ancient Order of Hibernians." Gallaher was also the president of the Alpha Society and belonged to the Philosophical Society, the Biological Club and the Granddaughters' Society.
Today's students also seek diversion from academics. Jessica Cook '99 belongs to Glee Club and Ceramics Club and is president of the Knitwits, a group of about 15 students who get together Sunday nights for knitting and discourse. She says her club memberships allow her the time she needs to step back from course work. "It's definitely a time where I can take a break," she says. "It's an enjoyable time for me. I think it's important for students to branch out and concentrate on things other than academics." Clubs also provide opportunities for students to meet people they might not otherwise meet, says Asia Bonacci '98, an alto with Instrumentally Challenged. "That's one of the great things about clubs," she says. "You get to meet people with different backgrounds." Kim, who has belonged to the Korean-American Students of Smith, Asian Students Association and S.O.S. and has been a deejay for campus radio station WOZQ, agrees. In her four years at Smith, she says, her club involvement has been essential in helping her establish a niche on campus. "For me, clubs have always been really big," she says. "Sometimes you just have a need to meet people outside the house." |
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NewsSmith is published
by the Smith College Office of College Relations for alumnae, staff, students
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Copyright © 1998, Smith College. Portions of this publication may
be reproduced with the permission of the Office
of College Relations, Garrison Hall, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
01063. Last update: 4/16/98.
Made with Macintosh
"Belonging to a club is a really good release,"
says Doan, who is a double major in dance and Russian and a member of the
Russian Club. "There's a large sense of unity within the group. It's
definitely social."
There's a club on campus to fulfill nearly any student's
interests. For the aficionado of European languages and cultures, for example,
there are clubs focusing on French, German, Italian and Russian; for the
science buff, there are the Smith College Society of Physics Students and
the Union of Underrepresented Science Students; for the outdoors type, there's
the Outing Club and the Bad Seeds, a horticultural club. There's the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Club, the Debate Society and the Association of Smith
Pagans. For the performing arts student, there are theatre and dance clubs,
the Handbell Choir and numerous singing groups like the Glee Club, the College
Choirs Alpha and Omega, the Smiffenpoofs and the Smithereens. There's even
Crapapella, a club for students who can't really sing--and freely admit
it--but love to anyway.
In all, there are more than 100 active clubs and organizations
on campus, says Judy Kim '98, president of the Student Government Association,
which sponsors and approves the charters of student-run clubs. "I think
people are always involved in clubs," she says, "because we're
at Smith and we want to get involved. When you first come to campus from
wherever you come from, you want to join everything."
Club membership seems to have always had the same lure:
a break from studies. In a letter to a high school friend dated September
20, 1881, Mary Mather of the class of 1883 described the George Eliot Society
to which she belonged. "We get together and read George Eliot,"
she wrote. "We don't take anything very deep on account of our hard
mental work during the day."