Contributed Photo / Students’ Union
The Clubs & Associations booth at the Get Involved Fair last year with associate vice-president Fiza Iqbal.
Wilfrid Laurier University Brantford will receive at least three new additions to their student-led and faculty clubs in September, resulting in a total of 27 clubs.
One of them will be the Business Technology Management Consulting Club, under the BTM program.
Another club, Laurier Brantford supporting Movember, will support Movember Canada by fundraising and raising awareness for men with cancer.
The third new club, Emo Night Laurier, “focuses on emo music,” said Neelesh Rehal, the vice-president of Clubs and Associations. Members of the club will be able to connect over their shared taste in music.
“There’s clubs based on your interests, but there’s also clubs that support charitable causes or culture and faith-based clubs,” said Rehal. “It’s a great opportunity for students to get involved in something that’s meaningful to them.”
The Students’ Union is working to improve clubs by streamlining the process of registering a new club and filling out required forms. They hired an extra person in the Clubs and Associations department this year to help with the workload. The Students’ Union also has a campus clubs’ fee of $2.92, which is included in each student’s tuition.
A club needs 10 members to start. The registration for clubs in the fall term was over on July 16, but new club registration will open in the fall for the winter term.
Some clubs have been around for years, such as the Laurier Brantford Chess Club. The club consists of 30 to 40 members from both Laurier and the community’s Brantford Chess Club.
This year was the “first summer that it’s been running”, said Joshua Clarizio, the club president and a fourth-year criminology student. The club ran from June 21 to Aug. 30 and will release new dates for the fall.
There are people from all skill levels who are on the club. To students considering joining, Clarizio said, “Give it a try, at least you meet some people on campus.”
The club gives lessons from 6 to 7 in the evening and plays chess from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. They occasionally have online events with chess players from the Waterloo campus.
By joining a club, “a lot of students will find that purpose or enjoyment outside of just the academic side of university and it gives them an opportunity … to have that purpose but also to make connections with other students who have similar interests,” said Rehal.
Students can find a list of Laurier’s clubs on the Students’ Union website, The Nest.
This article was originally published in print Volume 23, Issue 1 on Thursday, Aug. 31.
