A University student revealed today he has joined over 10 student societies but has yet to attend a single meeting or event. LIT University student John O’Hara blames his lack of participation on the false advertising attached to the clubs and societies.
Describing his experience of the clubs and societies fair in September, John said: “There’s just a million stalls with a bunch of people offering you all kinds of amazing things if you join, like a slice of pizza, or some made night out, or maybe even a t-shirt. But the reality is you have actually to do stuff to get access to most of this. It’s sort of like a pyramid scheme.”
John says it’s nearly impossible to get involved, comparing each society to a cult with a charismatic leader and legions of loyal followers who don’t take kindly to outsiders. He also mentioned the difficulty he faces when trying to even make it to scheduled meetings due to the times they are held, asking, “Who in their right mind is still in college at 7 pm?”
O’Hara was not the only one to criticise the aggressive sign-up tactics used by the society reps. Arts student Teresa Molloy says she was coaxed into joining 7 societies which she has no interest in, costing her a total of €28. “I’m not sure how they do it, one minute you’re walking down the hall, next minute you’re handing €4 to some guy from the Taxidermy society. I don’t even know what taxidermy is, I just wanted some free pizza”
Teresa went on to explain the hardships she has faced as a result of joining so many societies, such as receiving excessive amounts of emails; having a purse full of random society cards she never uses; actually being expected to have some sort of responsibility outside of her course and occasionally waking up to find a stuffed horse’s head lying beside her as revenge for her not replying to any of a certain society’s emails.
The taxidermy society have apparently resorted to terror tactics to intimidate its lapsed members into returning.
The University offers over 100 different clubs and societies costing €4 each to join. These include the Baby Punching Society, Satanic Church Society and The Music Club.
The head of Clubs and Socs in the University addressed these claims made by the students, saying that they were “just dry shites who don’t live on campus”.
John O’Hara plans to try to get some of his money back from the societies, and his contacted the Small Claims Court in pursuit of this goal. He claims he will only join one or two societies next year.
Ian Mangan