Club Involvement Poll aims to promote belonging, involvement in campus clubs

By Ashley Zhu

Assistant News Editor

College Council presented their findings from a Club Involvement Poll on Feb. 17 to Provost Ravi Bellamokonda and the Undergraduate Council, which consists of members from across the Emory University undergraduate community. The survey, which began on Feb. 3, is the beginning of College Council’s efforts toward improving “belonging efforts, promoting involvement and expanding access,” according to an email from College Council.

Incoming College Council President Neha Murthy (24C) is leading the initiative to improve club culture at Emory along with other College Council representatives, including outgoing Fourth Year Legislator Rhea Gupta (23C), incoming Third Year Legislator Corinne Phillips (25C), outgoing Third Year Legislator Harry Kou (24C), current Vice President of Organization Management Hridansh Saraogi (24C), incoming Second Year Legislator Rachel Alpert-Wisnia (26C) and outgoing Oxford Continuee

Legislator Arden Chan (22Ox, 24C).

Murthy said she is worried that Emory clubs reject students too frequently.

“Hearing from actual students of being rejected from like 13 clubs, or trying to get into the same club over two or three years, and then facing the rejection multiple times — it’s really disheartening, because we’re trying to create a college environment, and it’s an experience you should be able to enjoy, be involved and learn,” Murthy said. “We also see a lot of burnout, so I think that people being in a lot of leadership positions also causes that decrease or decline in mental health.”

According to Murthy, Student Involvement, Leadership and Transitions (SILT) invited College Council to share their data with the full SILT staff in order to “make some tangible changes from there.” One of the largest concerns that College Council is bringing to the dean and provost’s attention is that students are not getting the experience from campus clubs that they worked hard for, she said.

Murthy said that when students attempt to get involved in campus life, the application and interview processes — which she said are unnecessary at times — add a high barrier to entry. She also noted a large gap between the role of general body members and executive board positions, where the executive members do most of the work and have internal bonding events.

The interview process also often favors extroverted people, Murthy noted, even if introverted candidates are able to do the work better than their extroverted peers.

According to the poll, the greatest number of students felt excluded by pre-professional business clubs, followed by cultural and academic organizations, then political, service and ideological organizations.

Students from all racial and ethnic groups besides Hispanic felt it was hard to get involved in the community and students from all racial groups besides Middle Eastern felt strongly that the same people “availed too many positions.”

On average, each Emory student is involved in 3.32 clubs and has been rejected from 2.86 clubs. Students also interview for 3.7 clubs on average, while only holding 1.47 executive board positions.

“Another thing that I have on my mind is that we have a large divide of people who are extremely involved, hold multiple board positions,” Murthy said. “And then there’s the opposite extreme and then a lot of people are in the middle. But it’s a lot on the extremes — not involved or very highly involved.”

Engaging with community and developing a sense of belonging are essential components of student flourishing for the Emory student experience, according to SILT Associate Director of Student Organizations and Governance Dion Webb-Figueroa.

“In SILT, we are working to enhance

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