Are college students losing interest in clubs?

Photo courtesy of Opinion Editor, Nia Jones

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decrease in student involvement in clubs on campus. The Lamron hopes to address why this continues to happen and how we, the student body, can continue to support our clubs.

Recently, there has been a conversation among college executive board (e-board) club members that interest, attendance, and participation in clubs have been low over the past few semesters. Is this actually the case, though? Are there specific kinds of clubs that have been hit harder by this? And, how might the culture around club involvement have changed over time, inspiring this trend?

When exploring this question, then, it felt paramount to consider whether or not this trend could be the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine on the population— this is where we start comparing numbers. To explore this, I looked at the number of unique writers for The Lamron in a print from 2019, 2021, and then from our most recent print— Feb. 28, 2025. 

In doing this, I wanted to see how the number of writers in a given paper fluctuated from pre-pandemic, mid-pandemic, and post-pandemic lenses. Though not necessarily definitive, I think this exercise gives some interesting statistics to consider within the context of club participation more broadly. 

From this, I was able to surmise that the Nov. 14, 2019, print of The Lamron included 20 unique writers throughout the paper’s five separate sections. This, then, seems rather lush in comparison to the 10 unique writers that the Apr. 15, 2021 edition of The Lamron contained. Our latest issue stacks up, with 17 unique writers across the paper.

While this certainly is not definite statistical data, and generalizing this across Geneseo clubs more broadly is not necessarily relevant, I think this small trend goes to show that, in some ways, clubs might be in a place recovering from the effects the pandemic had on club culture across campus— especially as those who came into college with restrictions and policies influenced by COVID-19 begin to graduate and move away from the college environment.    

So, if it seems that maybe certain clubs are starting to regroup to the numbers they had before COVID-19, does this mean it's true for all kinds of clubs? For this, I inquired about club interest and participation with fellow members on campus who are involved with different clubs and organizations on campus.

In doing so, I was able to hear from sophomore Anthropology major and Geography minor Christian Chaffee, who serves as the Vice President of the Society for Anthropology and Sociomedical Sciences (SASS) club and as a general member of the Creative Writing Club (CWC). 

He goes on to note a different experience between the two clubs he participates in, stating, “For weeks now, meetings for SASS have been just the E-Board (four people) and one other member of the club. I've heard of similar situations of low member turnout with other academic clubs.” He contrasts this finding, then, with his experience as a general member of CWC, “…which consistently has large turnouts for meetings, being around eight people (including the five in the E Board) on average this semester…” 

Are academic clubs, because they seek to garner interest in people of specific disciplines, harmed in comparison to clubs focused on activity-oriented pursuits or group-hobbying, like CWC? Even though, in this example, the trends seem to lean away from academic clubs and towards hobby clubs, an article from The Guilfordian found a different perspective. 

In this article, published just this November, writer Ciara Mickens goes on to note that, “The majority of clubs are [now] seen as a chore rather than an option, making students lose interest in taking part in any extra activities outside of their academic work. Students are more likely to prioritize experiences that help their academic goals or future careers, often at the expense of clubs that might seem ‘irrelevant’ or disconnected from their needs.”

Mickens, then, goes on to explain that the trend at their college has been the opposite of that which Chaffee demonstrates above. Academic clubs are more popular due to a more immediately felt relevance to their study and future life; clubs focused on hobbies, activities, or more social aspects are suffering because the student body does not view them as “necessary” or “applicable.” 

What, then, might connect both these isolated experiences? I think Chaffee demonstrates a real potential contender when he remarks, “From my experience, clubs are friend groups with an official name, where the same people turn up each time to hang out, do the planned activity in question, and talk about life.” Expanding that, “The few new people that do appear either don't come back because they don't like it (I find it similar to dropping a class after a week of attending), or become friends with those already there and therefore have greater incentive to come back because their friends are there and they want to hang out. I've experienced this in both clubs.” 

The way we think about club culture has traditionally been in the avenue of thinking of clubs as a way to meet new people and become better acquainted and involved with a campus’s culture. On a personal front, I became interested in joining The Lamron because I became acquainted with other people who were already involved, and thereby, I found it a more approachable venture. 

Is the change in club attendance a reflection of how our society has become more close-knit in a post-pandemic society? Do we now subconsciously think of clubs as a way to spend more time amongst and work with people we have some familiarity with? 

Ultimately, it seems that clubs on campuses are in a sensitive and fluid time right now. While there is no definitive answer for how to expedite this process or how to increase club interest (beyond just getting people into your club who know a lot of people, maybe), I think it speaks to the ways in which college culture and community is shifting more broadly right now as college enrollment continues to decline from 2010 until now. 

I would encourage all those reading to try and get more involved! Go to an event or a club meeting you might be interested in but may be too scared to actually attend. These sorts of places are supposed to be the avenue for us to meet people, not for us to reaffirm relationships we already have. The culture and tradition of clubs as an inviting, socially liberating environment can only be changed by the student body, even when said change can feel ominous.