“Club space.” That’s what the new student commons promised, and it delivered. There is now a room dedicated to clubs on the fourth floor of the new Student Commons, but who is using it? What are the actual clubs that mean something at Manhattan College, and frankly when do we start calling and email list a club?

With the activities fair this past week, we can see that MC has an active student body. More over, we can see that there is a general interest in being involved. As the Manhattan College website lists, “more than 60 clubs and organizations offered, there’s something for everyone to join.” The question remains, how many of these clubs are just names on a table at the fair, collecting emails from freshmen never to be heard from again.

So what makes a Manhattan College club successful, and moreover how do we measure a club’s success? If it is simply how many “members” they have on their email list, then you can assume the most successful clubs on campus are the ones who gave out food, t-shirts or bracelets at the activities fair.

What really makes a club successful is the impact that they have on students and on the campus. Some of the clubs we have at MC seem to disappear after the activities fair, others have a continuous presence from organizing fundraisers, to holding campus events.

You can see a new trend on campus in the growing population of Greek life at MC. With the emergence of the fraternities and sororities on campus, the bar has been set as they have become some of the most present clubs at MC. They are drawing in new members possibly with the most ease. What makes a frat or a sorority so appealing? Allison Spedaliere, a sophomore hoping to rush a sorority this semester, thinks it’s the welcoming community.

“I am doing it to meet new people, and everyone seems so nice,” Spedaliere said.

The new emergence—and the ability to last—of Greek life on campus may simply come from interested members and a campus presence.

“We started two years ago and now that we have put up signs, held campus events and just got our name out there people are starting to recognize us,” Megan McKee, a current member of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority said.

Starting a club on campus is not necessarily easy either. One has to hope there is student interest, or they will not have enough members to be approved by the student government. It seems the clubs that are most successful are the ones that have been around and established for the longest time.

But of course, with the help of Student Activities, it is not impossible to start a new club. Sana Altaf, Tori Williams and Vanessa Valencia have taken up the challenge to start a new club this year, a fashion club. “There is interest,” Valencia said, but it has been difficult to get the idea out, “a lot of people don’t know about it yet, since the student government hasn’t approved or denied it yet.”

College is about getting involved, and clubs are the easiest and best way to do this. Luckily for us MC has a wide range of cultural groups, student publications, and clubs ranging from frats to the green club. There are many email lists to join, but what that club actually does during the year is a different story.

Being a successful club takes persistence from the organizers, and interest from the community, a mix that isn’t necessarily the easiest to find. However for the ones that find it, a great new campus club can be added to the roster.