When incoming freshmen arrive at UCLA for Bruin Day, they are immediately told there are more than 1,000 clubs they can join.
What they aren’t told is they probably won’t get into most of them.
Joining many of the most popular and desirable clubs on campus involves filling out an extensive application. And every club gets to make its own application with multiple stages to it. Some require resumes, cover letters, essays and portfolios. Some students even have to face multiple rounds of interviews, just to be among the single-digit percentage of students who get into a club.
But student organizations don’t get to make all the rules – the university still has a set of policies they must follow to even operate.
Student organizations are required to register through the Student Organizations, Leadership & Engagement Office, which registers new clubs and advises them on rules and regulations. Students must get three signatories, write a short description and create a constitution that states the logistics of voting privileges, finances and organizational structure.
But what’s missing here is how applications for new members will be made and what recruitment will be like.
The office does not help regulate student organizations’ application processes, which can make joining clubs more complicated than it should be. When every club does something different, it’s confusing, especially to first years who suddenly have to juggle 10 different types of applications on 10 different websites.
SOLE needs to regulate the application process for clubs that require students to apply before joining. There should be a standardized structure for clubs to handle applications and a centralized place for those applications to be made public. This increased oversight would make student organizations more accessible to students and take stress out of applying to clubs.
Katherine Alvarado, a UCLA spokesperson, said the SOLE Office does not regulate clubs and has not really had any problems with the small percentage of organizations that use applications. Ultimately, SOLE doesn’t know if regulating clubs is necessary.
But even a small percentage of the nearly 1,300 clubs is a large number. It’s especially important to note that some clubs can get hundreds of applicants a quarter, so to say that student organization applications are not prevalent isn’t true.
There’s quite a lot of variance in how clubs handle their applications. One can entail submitting a resume, essay and five short answers while another can have three long responses, a cover letter and a visual portfolio.
Leo Siow, a third-year computer engineering student, spent at least an hour on every application he filled out.
“These apps take a long time simply because they ask for a short answer and an essay,” Siow said. “Some even have tech challenges and coding interviews. Those take even longer.”
Students have expressed concerns about the elitism and exclusivity of campus organizations like student business clubs, so it’s evident SOLE needs to set clearer guidelines for clubs. If the clubs that do have applications already conduct their recruitment in a fair and accessible manner, then these regulations should be no big deal to them.
Moreover, applications are posted on each club’s website, which decreases accessibility for students. Each application comes with its own obstacles and hoops to jump through, limiting the opportunities students have to apply to all the clubs they want.
Tanmyaa MacDougall, a second-year international development studies student, said she has applied to up to 75 clubs and received mostly rejections.
“When you go on tours at UCLA, they’re like, ‘Oh, this is a collaborative environment,’” MacDougall said. “They talk about the 1,000 clubs on campus. I thought after so many rounds of applying something would happen.”
The lack of club accessibility can also affect students’ educational experiences.
Ayushi Shroff, a second-year neuroscience student, said applying to clubs was extremely stressful and made her question her self-worth.
“In terms of my experience at UCLA, it is disheartening (to be rejected from) things I wanted to explore,” Shroff said. “It makes you question if this is a field I’m meant to go into.”
It’s clear the SOLE Office should take a more active role in making the club recruitment process more accessible. Students would have a far less stressful time joining student organizations if club applications were all in one place and had a standardized format, as well as a standardized or recommended timespan for when to respond to applicants.
While it’s true that different clubs have a right to choose how to get the best applicants, that doesn’t mean they need to be unfair or compromise True Bruin Values in their recruitment. Centralizing the application process doesn’t mean these organizations would lose out on their individuality – it merely makes it easier for students to discover campus clubs.
Until that happens, though, there will be a lot of sad faces after the activities fair come fall quarter.
