The Spirit of Club Row
Last Thursday November 2 SMC held this semester’s Club Row, where dozens of clubs set up tables and stands to advertise and recruit. Starting around noon, there was an atmosphere of festivities, with music blaring, flags waving, and airbrush tattoos spraying onto people’s arms.
There were a large variety of clubs present, including ones promoting classes, charities, hobbies, political causes, and much more. One organization present was the Future Alumni Club. Their table was one of the first walking in from the north side of the campus.
The Future Alumni Club, which was established in 2012, had a number of members in eye-catching SMC blue shirts manning their table. Club member Tarik Meziab said “This is the booth for the Future Alumni Club. We are an association based in the alumni offices down the street. We focus on getting a lot of involvement on campus between past alumni and what we consider future alumni, which is any person coming here with any educational goal in mind. We try to network between those people, help people find positions or people in the career field that they're hoping to get into to work with in the future.”
Another club present was the Art Club. Their table displayed various projects, pins, paintings and other art pieces that were made by Art Club members. One member was even giving out airbrush tattoos.
“We're really working about giving access to the students like studio space on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Access to machines like the laser cutter and then other big printers that we have. You would have to pay a lot to go and use them in a different space. Then the buttons and the stickers are just kind of a fun way to see your art duplicated and put into production. That's like the application of that,” Eleanor Singer, the President of Art Club explained.
There were also number of political clubs there, including the conservative Young Americans for Freedom and Students Supporting Israel, as well as left wing clubs like Young Democratic Socialists of America, the Pan-African Student Union, and Students for Justice in Palestine.
Participating in Club Row in Psychology Club's Stanford Jail Experiment demonstration, Broadcast major Andrey Baily was cast in a role as a prisoner breaking out of jail, he said "It’s fun, entertaining, exciting, active, I live for his stuff!” Baily explained he enjoyed participating in the demonstration, but, "...the part about me trying to break out, that wasn’t my plan, it just happened.”
Pema Zonglo, an Economics major out on Club Row representing the Natural History Club, who sported jellyfish costumes to the event, explained, "Our club stands for everything flora and fauna, especially the ones native to CA - we try to raise awareness on current issues - so for instance our jellyfish [costumes] right now are indicative of the problem that we have to battle with all the plastic, the micro plastic is in almost every organism in the ocean. And we’re also raising awareness for our bee project, we want to build little bee houses for native bees on the Pan-African Student Union, and Students for Justice in Palestine.
Participating in Club Row in Psychology Club's Stanford Jail Experiment demonstration, Broadcast major Andrey Baily was cast in a role as a prisoner breaking out of jail, he said "It’s fun, entertaining, exciting, active, I live for his stuff!” Baily explained he enjoyed participating in the demonstration, but, "...the part about me trying to break out, that wasn’t my plan, it just happened.”
Pema Zonglo, an Economics major out on Club Row representing the Natural History Club, who sported jellyfish costumes to the event, explained, "Our club stands for everything flora and fauna, especially the ones native to CA - we try to raise awareness on current issues - so for instance our jellyfish [costumes] right now are indicative of the problem that we have to battle with all the plastic, the micro plastic is in almost every organism in the ocean. And we’re also raising awareness for our bee project, we want to build little bee houses for native bees on campus. That’s a project that's in the works right now."
Article Updated November 8, 2018:
Within the article, “The Spirit of Club Row,” it is stated that the club Students Supporting Isael is a political, conservative group, this is in fact not the case. In the same paragraph it states the clubs Pan-African Student Union and Students for Justice in Palestine are left wing clubs, when they do not specify this on their mission statements.