The eating clubs at Princeton University are private institutions resembling both
dining hall
A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or schoo ...
s and
social houses, where the majority of
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
upperclassmen eat their meals. Each
eating club occupies a large
mansion on Prospect Avenue (Prospect Street until 1900), one of the main roads that runs through the Princeton campus, with the exception of Terrace Club which is just around the corner on Washington Road. This area is known to students colloquially as "The Street". Princeton's eating clubs are the primary setting in
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
's 1920
debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
, ''
This Side of Paradise
''This Side of Paradise'' is the debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive ...
'', and the clubs appeared prominently in the 2004 novel ''
The Rule of Four''.
Princeton undergraduates have their choice of eleven eating clubs. Six clubs—
Cannon Club
Cannon Dial Elm Club, also known as Cannon Club, is one of the historic Eating Clubs at Princeton University. Founded in 1895, it completed its current clubhouse in 1910. The club closed in the early 1970s and later merged with Dial Lodge and Elm ...
,
Cap and Gown Club,
Princeton Tower Club,
The Ivy Club,
Tiger Inn and
University Cottage Club—choose their members through a
selective process called "bicker", involving an interview process, though the actual deliberations are secret. Five clubs—
Charter Club,
Cloister Inn,
Colonial Club,
Quadrangle Club, and
Terrace Club
Princeton Terrace Club is one of eleven current eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Terrace Club was founded in 1904 and is located at 62 Washington Road. It is the sole Princeton eating club located off ...
—are non-selective "sign-in" clubs, with members chosen through a lottery process. While many upperclassmen (third- and fourth-year students) at Princeton take their meals at the eating clubs, the clubs are private institutions and are not officially affiliated with
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
.
Social functions
The primary function of the eating clubs is to serve as dining halls for the majority of third- and fourth-year students. Unlike
fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America.
Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradu ...
, to which the clubs are sometimes compared, all of the clubs admit both male and female members, and members (with the exception of some of the undergraduate officers) do not live in the mansion.
The eating clubs also provide many services for their members. Each club, in general, has a
living room
In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. Su ...
,
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
,
computer cluster,
billiard room
A billiard room (also billiards room, or more specifically pool room, snooker room) is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table. (The term "billiard room" or "pool room" may also be us ...
, and
tap room. Members frequently use club facilities for studying and socializing. Each club also has a large lawn, either in front of or behind the mansion, and on days with nice weather, one will often see Princeton students playing various sports, such as
lawn bowling
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
, on club lawns.
On most Thursday and Saturday nights, the Street is the primary social venue for Princeton students, and each club will have music and parties. Some parties are open to all university students; these are colloquially called "PUID," in reference to the Princeton University
ID card which must be shown to
bouncer
A bouncer (also known as a doorman or door supervisor) is a type of security guard, employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs, cabaret clubs, stripclubs, casinos, hotels, billiard halls, restaurants, sporting events, schools, concerts, or ...
s for entrance. Other parties are only open to members or students with special passes, which must be obtained from members. Friday nights are much more low-key at Princeton, and clubs that are open are usually open only to members. The notable exceptions are Charter Club and Colonial Club, which are open to all university students. Each club also has semiformal events and formal dinners and dances.
Special events are held annually or biannually at every club. Some are specific to particular clubs; these are usually themed parties, such as "Sunday Fundays" at Cottage, "Boxers and Blazers" at Cap and Gown, "Butts Butts Butts" at Terrace Club, "Blackout" at Charter Club, "Tower Underground" at Tower Club, "Shit that Glows" at Quadrangle Club, and "State Night" at Tiger Inn. Other events are common to all clubs. These events include: Lawnparties, when clubs hire bands to play outdoors on their lawns on the Sunday before the first full week of fall classes; Winter Formals, which take place on the last Saturday before winter break; Initiations, where new sophomore recruits are introduced to club life (usually in early February); and Houseparties, a three-day festival at the end of spring term during which each club has a Friday night formal, a Saturday night semiformal, a champagne brunch on Sunday morning, and another round of Lawnparties on Sunday afternoon.
History
Fraternities and secret societies were banned from Princeton from the middle of the 19th century until the 1980s, with the exception of the university's political, literary, and debating societies, the American Whig Society ("Whig") and the
Cliosophic Society ("Clio"), which had been founded at Princeton before the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
.
Eating clubs arose from dining societies, in which Princeton students gathered to take meals at a common table. These groups, often whimsically named, rarely lasted longer than a few years, disappearing when their founders graduated.
Towards the end of the 19th century the eating clubs began to recruit new members as old ones left and also began to lease or buy permanent facilities.
Ivy Club
The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University, and it is "still considered the most prestigious" by its members. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Ivy is one of the "Big Four ...
was the first of the permanent eating clubs. It was followed shortly after by
University Cottage Club. This process was greatly aided by
Moses Taylor Pyne
Moses Taylor Pyne (December 21, 1855 – April 22, 1921), was an American financier and philanthropist, and one of Princeton University's greatest benefactors and its most influential trustee.
Biography
The son of Percy Rivington Pyne (182 ...
, who provided financial assistance to most of the eating clubs. An early member of
Ivy Club
The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at Princeton University, and it is "still considered the most prestigious" by its members. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head. Ivy is one of the "Big Four ...
, Pyne was heavily involved in the early development of
Cap and Gown Club,
Campus Club, Elm Club, Cloister Inn, and many others. The new clubs (along with other new extracurricular activities) gradually eroded the central role that debate societies Whig and Clio played in undergraduate student life. The decline in popularity and energy of the societies led to their merger into the
American Whig-Cliosophic Society
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
, which still exists today.
Twenty eating clubs have existed since Ivy Club opened in 1879, though never more than 18 at any one time. At various points, many of the eating clubs fell on hard times and closed their doors or merged with others. The now-defunct eating clubs include Campus Club, Key and Seal Club, Arch Club, Gateway Club, Court Club, Arbor Inn, and Prospect Club. Dial, Elm, and Cannon Clubs merged to form DEC Club, which operated from 1990 to 1998. The most recent club to close was Campus Club, which shut down in 2005.
The eating clubs and their members have figured prominently among Princeton alumni active in careers in literature and the performing arts. For example, the distinguished Pulitzer Prize writer
Booth Tarkington, who transformed the Drama Association into the
Princeton Triangle Club, was a prominent member of Ivy Club.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
was a member of the University Cottage Club. The actors
Jimmy Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...
and
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny ( ; born ) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for portraying FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series ''The X-Files'' (1993–2002, 2016-2018) and as writ ...
were members of the Charter Club, and the actors
Dean Cain and
Brooke Shields were members of Cap and Gown.
Eating clubs have sometimes closed and returned to active life. The Cloister Club was reopened in the 1970s and continues successfully. Some closed eating clubs have been purchased by the university for use as academic and administrative buildings. Dial Lodge is now the
Bendheim Center for Finance; Elm Club temporarily housed the Classics Department and European Cultural Studies Program and is the new home of the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding. The donation of Campus Club to the university for use as a space for social events was completed in 2006. Cannon Club was briefly converted into Notestein Hall, an office for the University Writing Center, but has since been repurchased by alumni. The club was reopened as Cannon Dial Elm Club in fall 2011.
In 1979, undergraduate
Sally Frank filed suit against then all-male clubs Ivy Club, Cottage Club, and Tiger Inn for gender discrimination. While Cottage chose to coeducate during the intervening years, Ivy Club and Tiger Inn were forced to become co-ed organizations in 1991, 22 years after Princeton first admitted female students, after their appeal to the Supreme Court regarding Frank's lawsuit was denied.
The eating clubs have attracted controversy, being viewed as outdated,
elitist institutions. (
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
was, in part, driven from Princeton by alumni and administrators because he loathed the effect the clubs had on academic and social life.) A major part of the controversy was the difference in cost between joining an eating club and buying a university dining plan. By 2006, the difference was over $2,000 for most clubs, and this difference was not covered by university
financial aid
Student financial aid in the United States is funding that is available exclusively to students attending a post-secondary educational institution in the United States. This funding is used to assist in covering the many costs incurred in the p ...
. In November 2006, Princeton administrators announced that they would increase upperclass financial aid packages by $2,000, in order to cover the difference in costs. However, as of December 2009, there was still a "significant discrepancy" between the university financial aid package and the cost of some clubs.
Historical list of clubs
Timeline
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from:1879 till:$now text: The Ivy Club
from:1886 till:$now text: University Cottage Club
from:1890 till:$now text: Tiger Inn
from:1890 till:$now text: Cap and Gown Club
from:1891 till:$now text: Colonial Club
from:1895 till:1975 text:Cannon Club
from:1895 till:1973 text:Elm Club
from:1900 till:2005 text: Campus Club
from:1901 till:$now text:Princeton Charter Club
The Princeton Charter Club is one of Princeton University's eleven active undergraduate eating clubs located on or near Prospect Avenue in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.
Club history
The Princeton Charter Club was organized in the fall of ...
from:1901 till:$now text: Quadrangle Club
from:1902 till:$now text: Princeton Tower Club
from:1904 till:$now text:Terrace Club
Princeton Terrace Club is one of eleven current eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Terrace Club was founded in 1904 and is located at 62 Washington Road. It is the sole Princeton eating club located off ...
from:1904 till:1968 text:Key and Seal Club
from:1907 till:1988 text:Dial Lodge
from:1911 till:1917 text:Arch Club
from:1912 till:1972 text: Cloister Inn
from:1913 till:1937 text:Gateway Club
from:1921 till:1964 text:Court Club
from:1923 till:1939 text:Arbor Inn
from:1990 till:1998 text:DEC
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from:1990 till:1998 text:DEC
from:1978 till:1989 from:1990 till:1998 text:DEC
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from:1990 till:1998 text:DEC
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from:1977 till:$now
from:1941 till:1959 text:Prospect Club
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from:2011 till:$now text:CDE
Joining clubs
Bicker
The seven selective eating clubs pick new members in a process called "bicker".
Bicker begins each spring semester during the week following intersession break, when interested sophomores come to the club they would like to join. The bicker process varies widely by club, ranging from staid interviews conducted by club members to raucous games designed to foster competition among potential inductees. Following two or three evenings of bicker activities, the club membership selects new members in closed sessions, the conduct of which varies from club to club. The clubs initiate their new members the following weekend.
Additionally, some bicker clubs conduct a smaller "Fall Bicker" for third and fourth year students. Admission numbers during fall bicker are typically much lower than those of spring bicker, as fall bicker is a chance for clubs to adjust their membership numbers to account for members who may have dropped club membership during the spring semester or over the summer.
Bicker clubs hold parties with restricted admission more frequently than their sign-in counterparts. Such events often require that non-members present a pass, a colored card bearing the club's insignia, in order to enter. Non-members may also gain entry to parties at some bicker clubs by entering with a member, or through membership in the Inter-Club Council.
Sign-ins
The four non-selective eating clubs pick new members in a process called "sign-ins".
Students rank the five sign-in clubs, or wait-lists for those clubs, in their order of preference. If more students choose a club as their first choice than that club is able to accept as members, a random lottery is used to determine which students are accepted. The remaining students are then placed into their second choice club or wait list, provided it has not filled, in which case they would be placed into their third choice, and so on.
Students who choose to bicker and are not admitted to a club via sign-in are immediately placed into a second-round sign-in where they will be placed into their top choice of club that has not filled. While not every student will get into their first choice of club, either through sign-in or bicker, every student seeking membership has been placed into one of the clubs, though sometimes after a significant waiting period.
Alternatives
For upperclassmen who choose not to join the eating clubs, there are alternative social/eating options. These include:
* University dining facilities, usually by drawing back into an underclass residential college. Residential Advisors in the colleges can be eating club members, but are required by the university to take some of their meals in their college. Starting in the 2007–2008 Academic year, upperclassmen have the option of joining one of the new four-year residential colleges instead of an eating club. The four-year colleges are Whitman College, Mathey College and Butler College as of fall 2009. All three colleges have new dining halls that are more competitive with the food offered in the clubs.
* The Center for Jewish Life, a
Kosher dining hall.
* Independent life. Students who cook for themselves are referred to as "independents". While kitchens are located in many dormitories on campus, the most favorable option of independents are the Spelman Halls. These dorms are composed mostly of four-person suites (but there are some doubles) with private baths and kitchens.
* Student Co-ops: student co-ops are becoming an increasingly popular option on campus. Students rotate cooking once a week, and manage the co-ops themselves. They often have their own social events, including the Co-op Hop, a semi-formal in which all three co-ops showcase their best dishes and desserts.
** The
Two Dickinson Street Co-op, a 50-member vegetarian co-op located immediately off campus in a university-owned house.
** The Brown Co-op, a non-vegetarian co-op located in Brown Hall, an on-campus dormitory building.
** The International Food Co-op (IF
a co-op that features international cuisine and members from around the world. The IFC is located in Laughlin Hall.
* Fraternities and sororities are a complementary social option to the eating clubs, but their organizations are not recognized by the university. Most fraternity/sorority members also join eating clubs.
* Class societies (analogous to Yale's secret societies) such as
collegiate secret societies in North America#Princeton University, Phi /fē/
References
External links
Mudd Manuscript Library: Eating Clubs Records, 1879–2005 provides a history and list of materials in the library.
section from Alexander Leitch, ''A Princeton Companion'', Princeton University Press (1978).
fro
Princeton University, An Interactive Campus History, 1746–1996 provides a history and several photos of each club.
The Princeton Eating Clubsis a 192-page book published in 2017 written by preservation expert Clifford W. Zink, which details the history of the eating clubs and is richly illustrated
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eating Club (Princeton University)
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Princeton University
Student societies in the United States