This weekend, the ASCIT Board of Directors spent Friday night listening to dozens of student clubs beg for funding. I’ve sat through that meeting twice, and as I look back on those long nights of debating over often trivial sums of money, it makes me wonder if maybe there are just too many clubs at Caltech.

A quick count through this year’s little t reveals that there are 98 clubs on campus – more than one club for every ten undergraduates. Since ASCIT requires each club to have at least ten members, we’re probably pretty close to reaching our limit. New clubs are still forming though, and two of the new ones might be considered among the most prominent on campus: The chess club and figure skating team are not even listed in the little t but have been topping the Caltech headlines for the past few weeks.

It seems like the most successful clubs are often the new clubs. I was part of one of these in my sophomore year, when the Caltech Cheer Squad won its division at the Cheerleaders of America West Coast Open. Another very ambitious club, Building Bridges, has compiled an impressive resume over the past two years. The CURJ and the Fishing Quarterly, the newest student publications, are both doing quite well.

This is not to say that established clubs aren’t doing great things too. The Caltech Christian Fellowship holds more regular activities than almost any other group on campus. SPECTRE still maintains an extensive science fiction library. The Caltech C is quite active and organizes an impressive annual Chinese New Year celebration.

Still, almost a third of the clubs listed in this year’s little t are less than five years old. A quick perusal of the 1996 little t reveals that more than 20 of the 88 clubs listed no longer exist. The Caltech Space Society, the Taiwanese Student Association, Israeli Folkdancers, Club Homeboy, and the Cryogenics Club are among the forgotten.

This sort of phenomenon probably exists at other colleges since any one student can only sustain a club for four years. However, the problem may be more acute at Caltech because we have such a small student body. The long-standing clubs like CCF and the Caltech C boast memberships over 100. Most Caltech clubs can’t even claim 25 active members so inevitably, many fall victim to graduating leadership.

It wasn’t always like this. There were never more than about 30 clubs on campus before 1960, and students were generally concentrated into a few large student activities. In those times, Tau Beta Pi was very active on campus as were other engineering societies. The Glee Club was the most popular activity on campus into the 70’s. The Caltech Christian Fellowship and the Newman Club also have long histories.

One of the most interesting clubs during the 40’s and 50’s was a group known as the Beavers. The 1946 little t tells us that “to be one of the fifty members of the Beavers is considered a campus honor of no small degree. Beavers are easily recognized by their white sleeveless sweaters with a brown and gold emblem on the front. The purpose of the Beavers is twofold. First to offer recognition for past service, and second to promote school spirit and interest in campus affairs in the future.” It seems like the Beavers were basically a 50-person social team for the entire undergraduate student body. They helped organize ASCIT activities, rounded up students for athletic events, helped plan Frosh Camp each year, and even visited local high schools to promote Caltech. During the 50’s, there was so much interest that some students started another group, the Instituters, that was not as exclusive.

Now, maybe it just wasn’t cool to be a Beaver anymore, or perhaps the rise of Student Affairs and increased administrative support for students rendered them unnecessary, but by the 1970’s, both these clubs had died out. Through the 70’s and 80’s, new clubs formed around special interest groups, representing the increasing diversity on campus. The Chinese Student Association, Hillel, and Jazz Band formed during this time along with now defunct clubs like the Undergraduate Women’s Group, the Libertarian Forum, and the Model United Nations team. From 1970 to 2002, the number of clubs on campus doubled while the student body only grew about 25%.

Maybe this is a good thing. After all, between a half-dozen bands and orchestras, 18 varsity sports, almost 100 clubs, and over 250 different student government offices, there are more than enough activities for 942 students to choose from (those of you who complain that there’s nothing to do clearly aren’t looking hard enough).

However, the increasingly varied interests of the student body have created a much less unified campus. The past few decades have seen the end of almost all our campus-wide traditions. Interhouse, Mudeo, ASCIT Movies, and football games are long gone. ASCIT donuts and the ASCIT formal may not be far behind. Few activities on campus ever force people to cross House lines. Attendance at athletic events is certainly far down from the days of the Beavers, and school spirit is at an all time low.

Individually, we have a lot more opportunities, but are we really better off now? At a place where “Caltech community” is supposed to mean something and traditions are vitally important, perhaps a little more “Beaver Fever” might not be a bad thing.