A pictured rock-climbing session on the previous MU climbing club Instagram account from 2021.
MC_CLIMBING / INSTAGRAM
Maddie Rosado, Managing / News Editor
Manhattan University’s (MU) climbing club is returning to campus this fall after a three-year absence, with senior mechanical engineering major Mario Ballard leading efforts to revive the initiative.
The club first started in 2019, with the last records of activity dating to 2023 before it seemingly disbanded. Ballard is now founding and serving as president of the revived club.
In an interview with The Quadrangle, Ballard explained that the idea came unexpectedly after a trip to a rock-climbing gym.
“Recently I was looking for something more physical to do, so a couple of Saturdays ago I went to a rock-climbing gym,” Ballard said. “I saw that Columbia University had a climbing club, and I thought, ‘We should have one too. Did we ever have one?’”
That question led Ballard to an unexpected discovery.
“I found this whole archived page about a MU climbing club,” Ballard said. “I guess it used to exist, but I don’t even remember hearing about it. That’s when I decided to look into bringing it back.”
To further understand the club’s history, The Quadrangle spoke with Robin Lovell, Ph.D., who served as the club’s original faculty advisor. Lovell, who no longer works at MU, told The Quadrangle that the club’s early success was largely driven by its student founders.
“At the time, it was totally the students’ effort that put the club together,” Lovell said. “They were spearheading it and organizing everything, and then they got to the point where they started looking for a faculty advisor. I don’t take credit for any of it. The students put it all together and made it work.”
As advisor, Lovell said his role centered less on climbing and more on helping the students navigate the university’s bureaucracy.
“I worked with the students to get officially recognized, helping with paperwork, making sure they had a board of executive members, agendas at their meetings, all the bureaucratic stuff,” Lovell said.
That bureaucracy, Lovell explained, ended up being one of the club’s biggest obstacles as they tried to expand its activities and outreach.
“The process for becoming a legitimate club was a little onerous, a little too much for a full-time student and especially for the commuter students,” Lovell said. “Why would you make it so difficult just to be a group of people doing the thing they like to do? First you had to prove you were a legitimate group, and then maybe a year down the line they’d give you funding.”
By the 2022-2023 academic year, it had lost the momentum that carried it through its early years.
“There were two students who were really passionate and organized most of the club’s activities,” Lovell said. “I think they struggled to find a freshman or sophomore to take over… It went from meeting every week to once a month.”
With that history in mind, Ballard is already looking ahead, taking steps to prevent the same problems that plagued the club in the past.
“After I set up the initial structure of the club, I’ll find some interested underclassmen and bring them in to take over,” Ballard said.
Before Ballard could think about succession, he first had to get the word out. As part of his effort to revive the club, he designed and hung flyers around campus. The simplistic design featured a rock with googly eyes and a QR code for students to sign up.
MADDIE ROSADO / THE QUADRANGLE
“I designed the flyer myself,” Ballard said.
So far, interest has outpaced what he expected.
“I’m very overwhelmed with how many people have signed up so far, close to 50,” Ballard said.
Jackson Yerkes, a junior mechanical engineering major and rush chair of Alpha Phi Delta Fraternity, commented that the flyer’s design caught his attention.
“The minimalist design really stood out to me, and I think it paired well with the ultimate frisbee posters,” Yerkes said.
After stopping by the club’s table at MU’s fall semester club fair, Yerkes explained he left considering signing up.
“I would consider signing up,” Yerkes said. “Even after going to the table at the club fair, they made a pretty convincing case. It seems like a lot of fun.”
As interest grows, Ballard wants to preserve the low-pressure spirit that defined the club originally.
“It’s not going to be anything serious or competitive,” Ballard said. “Just a group of people getting together on the weekends to have fun.”
The club plans to hold regular sessions at a climbing gym chain with several locations across New York City.
“The gym is called Movement,” Ballard said. “They have a couple of locations in the boroughs. I want to try to do something at least once a week.”
Because there’s no leftover funding from the club’s earlier iteration, members will cover their own costs.
“It’s going to be entirely funded by individual students,” Ballard said. “I don’t think we have any money left over from the previous club. It looks like members will either pay for one-time passes or can get a membership if they choose.”
Looking ahead, Ballard is also considering a potential trip to the Shawangunk Ridge, a popular climbing destination in southeastern New York known among climbers as “the Gunks.”
“Someone at Movement mentioned there are a bunch of mountains upstate called the Gunks, so we might do a trip there,” Ballard said.
For Lovell, hearing about the club’s return is a reminder for students to try something new and find an interest of their own.
“If you’re all interested, just go for it,” Lovell said. “Just jump in and try it out, even if you’re not great at it at first.”