The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 6 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on March 12, 2021.
Nathaniel Bodnar ’21
Staff Writer
bodnarnm@lfc.edu
Now that we are back on campus, student clubs and organizations at Lake Forest College must think about rebuilding. COVID-19 has harmed the natural cycle of student groups, as they are accustomed to the process of having members for roughly four years before a member graduates and leaves the club or organization. This year, all clubs and organizations are rebuilding after a crisis; we must recognize this and acknowledge that our past methods for maintaining campus clubs and organizations will not be sufficient for rebuilding.
Clubs and organizations shape and form the individuals who engage with them, and clubs and organizations at Lake Forest College often prepare their members for leadership roles as their members progress through college. Student organizations have struggled to replace their lost members from last year, much less to teach their new members the values and virtues they hold dear or prepare them for leadership roles. In just two months, another class will leave the College, and there will still be a clear divide between the members of groups who joined before COVID and the members who have joined since, and next fall, the two sets will have equal representation in enrollment.
Seniors tend to be lame ducks in their organizations, but this year above all others, seniors must work to pass on what our organizations have taught us. The current batch of sophomores had a formative time in their college experience robbed from them, and the online replacement was not adequate. They had not spent a full year in any club or organization before COVID, and since many student groups have struggled, they do not fully know what the institutions they belong to are capable of and supposed to be. Seniors must help the sophomores to be ready to take on leadership roles next year. It is the responsibility of upperclassmen to prepare and help shape them for those roles.
If someone does not have a good sense of how a club or organization is supposed to shape them, they may seek to shape the club or organization to fit them as they are now. This would not only cause damage to the institution, but it would rob its new members of the chance to grow and have a formative experience. As any junior or senior can relate, the groups we join help shape us into the person we are today.
We stand now in the carnage that has been caused by COVID; we must rebuild. Rebuilding institutions is a huge responsibility and power. Those at the helm of clubs and organizations have an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild them, but this requires caution. We should not rebuild the clubs and organizations in our own image, thus stripping them of their past. We must look at what attracted us to our clubs and organizations and how they changed us. We are being tasked to rebuild, not to break ground. No one person can solve this problem, but if we do not work to rebuild our clubs and organizations, they will quickly become ruins.
