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LBCC be Clubin'

Max Brown
The Commuter

Thursday, November 5, 2009

“Get connected, get involved, find belonging!” are the opening lines of the Linn-Benton Community College club manual.

LBCC offers a wide range of clubs for students who are interested. They also try to make it easy to start a club if a student cannot find one that fits them.

“I think clubs give students a place to get involved, meet new friends, and a chance to explore shared interests,” said Lynne Cox, associate dean of Student Development.

Cox feels that many students sometimes feel isolated when they start college and that clubs ease that feeling. Also, students who are involved with clubs have a greater chance for academic success.

As reported by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (www.ccsse.org), “The more actively engaged students are — with college faculty and staff, with other students, with the subject matter being learned — the more likely they are to persist in their college studies and to achieve at higher levels.”

Earlier this year the college held a club fair in the quad. Chelsea Ellertson, student activities coordinator, said in the future she wishes to push that back to November. Ellertson feels that things are just not organized enough then for an effective club fair.

According to Ellertson, they are planning a second club fair for later this year. Although still a tentative idea, they hope to have an event planned for Chinese New Year in the Commons. At this event, they would also welcome clubs to set up tables around the Commons to offer information to students.

“If you can get something to attract the people, they’ll naturally go and try to find out about the clubs,” Ellertson said.

There are a number of different types of clubs on campus. Ellertson says that most of them are focused on academics, but that students can find a number of special interest clubs and some special project clubs.

If a student does not find the kind of club they want, Ellertson says that it’s easy to start a club at LBCC. Other than finding eight students who share a common interest, someone starting a club will only need to fill out two or three forms. A club can be started at any time of the year.

Once someone has started a club they will receive $100 to help get the club up and running. As long as the club remains active they can re-apply for that money every year.

According to Ellertson, clubs have a number of options when searching for more funds. Not only will the school provide the start-up funds, but clubs can also petition the ASG and Student Programming Board for money.

Ellertson mentioned the club reserve grant. This is a $500 grant that must be applied for and approved by the Student Activities Programs Committee. She said that they also receive requests for travel or larger events and usually the club is approved that money.

She also mentioned the courtyard lunch series, which is a joint effort between Student Life & Leadership and Conference Services. Clubs can choose to sponsor one of these events. The club must provide all the labor and do publicity for the event, but they need not worry about the food, which will be provided by Conference Services. For doing this event, the club is given $150.

Ellertson is currently working on revising the club manual. This manual contains information on starting a club, running a club, how to raise funds, and much more. This manual will be available online soon.

“Really, what we are trying to do is provide people with a resource to make a connection with somebody with common interests,” Ellertson said.

For more information about starting a club, or anything involving clubs, contact Chelsea Ellertson at ellertc@linnbenton.edu.

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