Walking around McGill’s Activities Night, you may wonder how anyone could complain about the available club options. At the beginning of each semester, McGill’s SSMU building has three floors packed with tables representing different clubs, societies, publications, volunteer opportunities, and more. Hundreds of clubs should offer countless ways to get involved while gaining experience within your field and meeting like-minded people.
However, feeling like an actual part of a club often requires securing an elusive executive role. Because academic clubs rarely offer consistent general member programming, the competitive application process becomes an unnecessary barrier to building genuine community.
Most academic clubs and organizations require an extensive application and interview process just to secure an executive role – the key to consistent involvement that general membership usually fails to provide. Attending a large social event feels entirely different from a regular club meeting. Students shouldn’t have to compete for the opportunity to feel like they’re actually part of a club.
I have explored several clubs and spoken to many people who share my frustrations with McGill’s academic club culture. Layla Boutaba, a third-year student at McGill, described McGill’s club culture as “weirdly competitive and cliquey,” and said she’d like to see clubs “lowering the stakes” and “entry hurdles.”
Boutaba is co-president of McGill’s Board Game Student Society (BGSS), a club that is open to all students and meets at the same time and location every week. Boutaba noticed “the amount of people who asked us at activities night if they needed to register or apply to this club.” She felt that limiting access to BGSS “takes the fun out of it.” Students assuming that recreational clubs require some sort of application shows the extent to which competitive club applications are normalized. Thankfully, clubs like BGSS are open to all students, providing an excellent space for socializing and building relationships with other members. While academic and recreational clubs serve different purposes, both should fundamentally be easy places to share common interests. Many of McGill’s academic clubs could learn a lesson from recreational clubs and provide more meaningful and consistent general membership opportunities.
Executive roles within academic clubs tend to be the key to regular planning and involvement with other club members. In conversations I’ve had with executives about application processes, the general advice has been to be present at events and make sure you are an active general member before applying, to ensure current executives know who you are.
This active involvement is easier said than done. I have yet to find an academic club that holds regularly scheduled general member meetings. Being a “member” seems to just put you on a mailing list that tells you about upcoming events but doesn’t actually make you feel like you’re part of anything.
According to their Instagram accounts, clubs like the Political Science Student Association (PSSA), The Woman’s Network, and International Development Studies Student Association (IDSSA) offer networking events, panels, and socials but don’t offer an easy opportunity for general members to participate in planning these events.
Many of these events are also ticketed, with prices typically ranging from $10 to $20, depending on the venue, event, and how early tickets are purchased. Paid events also present an equity issue. The more paid events you attend, the more familiar you become with execs. While certainly not intentional, this barrier to entry limits many students’ ability to make themselves known within a club and thus puts them at a disadvantage in securing an executive position, and inadvertently allows students who don’t have to worry about the costs to become more familiar with club leaders.
For me, the desire to have greater responsibility in a club is less about adding another bullet to my resume and more about seeing and working with the same group of people with similar interests to mine on a regular basis.
To be fair, clubs aren’t operating on unlimited resources. I understand that executives are volunteering their time and working to keep their organization afloat through ticketed events. However, adding more regular general member meetings wouldn’t have to add to these costs. More frequent meetings would take time, but some of that work could even be delegated to general members, who might enjoy planning meetings and appreciate the experience.
This reality can be particularly difficult for first-years, who may want to get involved in a more committed way but lack the experience or connections needed to secure these roles. “The club culture here is more competitive than I thought it would be coming in. I didn’t realize you had to apply for certain roles,” said first-year student Ayelet Meir. First-year students seeking executive roles are at an even bigger disadvantage, as they haven’t yet had the opportunity to build up a rapport with current executives.
Without regular general membership meetings and free events, clubs indirectly favor students who have the flexibility to attend and pay for inconsistently scheduled events, as well as those with greater prior experience and more impressive resumes. Students crave connection and predictability, and executive positions or paid events should not be the only way to find that. Academic clubs ultimately should exist to foster community and collaboration, but a lack of meaningful participation as a general member shuts students out of that experience.
