More Time for Activities: Hopkins Hits the Clubs

Many students feel they don’t currently get enough time during the school day to attend the clubs they want. Henry Russell ’28 said, “I’m not that dissatisfied with the current club system, but since it is only an hour each week, I have a hard time going to all the clubs I want to go to.”

Annie Zhang ’27 said that she appreciates "that now there’s time to meet multiple times a week.” As a co-captain of Debate Club, she said that “We can dedicate one day to novices and one day to varsity debaters.” This is helpful because the varsity team can “actually improve.”

Additionally, a concern with the current system involves boards and committees like Student Council, or StuCo. Currently, StuCo, the Sustainability Board and the Diversity Board all meet after school. Student Activities Coordinator Hughes Fitzgerald suggested that with the large number of new time slots, this could change. “In theory, the new schedule allows for clubs that meet outside of the school day like StuCo into the school day to improve accessibility.”

The current system is also difficult to manage for club heads who feel like they need to choose between running a club and attending other clubs. Aurora Aden ’29 stated, “As someone who has to run two clubs, I don't have the chance to go to other clubs very often. This really limits my options and I rarely get to visit the clubs I find interesting.”

Avery Kinney ’29 added, “I found the activities block once a week was inconvenient, as there is not enough time to pursue both discovery and further enrichment. I wish Hopkins would allocate more time for clubs and activities so that more students could explore their current interests while discovering new ones.”

Fitzgerald also brought up an issue with the number of clubs currently operating at Hopkins. He claimed that there are currently too many clubs relative to the amount of space Hopkins can offer. “We have about 120 clubs at Hopkins, and there simply is not enough space for clubs to meet as frequently as they would like.”

With numerous clubs and limited time and space, the new activities system could address this issue in two different ways.

Becky Harper, director of equity and community, believes the new schedule can reduce overcrowding by spacing out club meetings. Harper stated: “I think that there is huge potential for clubs with the new schedule, because there will be multiple time slots for clubs to meet.” She also hopes “this means that students can make meaningful commitments to a few clubs, rather than having to make tough decisions about which club to attend in our existing schedule.”

Even with more time to meet, many clubs do not actively host meetings. Fitzgerald believes the way to fix this is by cutting clubs: “my goal is to try and get rid of as many clubs that don’t meet as possible while also recognizing that the reason why they could not meet was due to the schedule."

Fitzgerald elaborated: "It may be that there is no true reduction in the number of clubs this year and we would instead see that change next year.” Zhang acknowledged that “some clubs aren’t as active as others, in which case, I agree we should cut them off.” However, she doesn’t think that “there’s a need to do a mass purge.”

Historically, the school has never cut large numbers of clubs at once, which suggests that there may not be many clubs removed from the roster. Fitzgerald mentioned that “last year only two clubs were denied. Clubs are only really denied if there is overlap or if what they are suggesting is impossible in the system provided.” It is likely, then, that the number of clubs will be reduced by combining similar clubs.

Lastly, Fitzgerald stressed that clubs that are cut are not gone forever. When asked if clubs removed from the roster this year could return, he said, “100%. Some of the clubs that I am seeing presented are clubs that are already real but only existed on paper. As long as they go through the proper processes. At any point a cut club can come back as long as they have a justification.”