Upperclassmen, remember where you came from.
I remember where I came from. On the second night of freshman year, I stood in the corner at an NSO event, hoping that someone would come over to talk to me. Not knowing what to say, I stumbled my way through conversation, unsure of myself and painfully aware of my mistakes. Three years later, I’d like to think I’m significantly less awkward than I was back then, but the jury’s still out.
One thing I do know, however, is that I wouldn’t be the same person today without the student groups that nurtured me.
Much has been written about the impact of Penn’s club culture on mental health on campus, but little seems to have changed. I’ve spoken to current freshmen who tell me “you have to apply to 20 clubs, because if you’re lucky, you’ll get into one or two.” One freshman described to me how she was asked to seduce one of the interviewers and felt she was there for the board to “have a good laugh at [her] expense.” Another freshman was asked to tell the interviewers a story about his sex life.
Another freshman explained to me that he never heard back from a club for which he interviewed, despite his friend getting accepted.
These practices are neither good for new students nor the organizations that seek to exclude them. Students face immense challenges like living alone, taking advanced courses and navigating unfamiliar social environments. The last thing they need is the pressure to apply to dozens of groups because they’re scared they won’t make friends.
Moreover, the interview process favors extroverts and already accomplished students, as evidenced by the same 30 freshmen who are accepted to multiple clubs, while others are locked out altogether. The more affirmation and acceptances students receive from groups, the more confident they become. But students whose strengths don’t include interviewing or mingling with strangers are rejected, leading to less confidence and more self-doubt.
Student organizations should be a formative, not summative, experience of college — that is, student groups should foster growth, not be a reward for freshmen who come to Penn the farthest ahead in interview skills. Who knows what that shy girl standing in the corner at your NSO event could become, if given the chance to blossom?
This process isn’t good for student groups either. The interview process favors superficial qualities like appearance and charm, but the most skilled interviewees aren’t necessarily the most talented. Also, the arms race of applications makes students apply to more clubs than the one or two they’re really interested in, for fear of being left out in the social cold. As such, competitive applications may paradoxically make it difficult to tell which freshmen are truly committed. Perhaps clubs would be better off accepting everyone and seeing who ends up sticking around.
I harbor no delusions that Penn student groups will become 100% inclusive, nor do I believe that’s worth striving for, given that groups face resource constraints. I instead encourage upperclassmen leaders to lengthen the process and select members not during the first weeks of class, but sometime later. As the weeks go on and students voluntarily drop out, upperclassmen can then select the truly committed freshmen.
But speaking more broadly, I want upperclassmen to remember the human sitting across the table from you. To the groups who rattle freshmen in interviews, I implore you to treat your applicants the way you’d like Bain and McKinsey to treat you during OCR. And to those upperclassmen who evaluate, judge and assess prospective members like specimens in a lab, I ask you: Did you like the process, when you were a freshman? Did it make you feel valued? Respected? Cared for?
To new students reading this, I want you to know that you are valuable, that you matter and that your worth does not come from acceptances from people just three years older than you. And to upperclassmen reading this, we need to be better. Because for all of the dialogue on campus about providing a healthier emotional climate, we sure don’t seem to live it. We can either pay lip service to improving mental health on campus, or we can start by being kinder to each other, especially to those in one of the most vulnerable stages of their lives.
Upperclassmen, it’s time for us to remember where we came from. It’s time for us to set the norm of a more supportive campus climate. It’s time for us to lead.
