The PCDS student senate terminated 25 clubs on Sunday, Jan. 11, due to their lack of compliance with guidelines created by senior Treasurer Elsa Termansen earlier this school year.
Students with terminated clubs lost their ability to contact the Upper School student body, hold club meetings in teachers’ classrooms, and utilize club-specific funding, according to an email Termansen sent on the evening of Jan. 11.
The decision stems from Termansen’s mission to make clubs a more serious aspect of PCDS culture. “PCDS gives students and their clubs an enormous amount of resources, and I aim to foster an environment that supports their use,” Termansen wrote in her candidacy vision statement last spring.
This year, Termansen has implemented stricter guidelines for club leaders, which include holding one meeting per month, tracking attendance, and writing meeting summaries. Additionally, she has worked tirelessly to ensure that this year’s 67 clubs each receive adequate funding with an organized budget and reimbursement system. “I just want the clubs to be a little more serious, and for people to actually be able to do things with them,” Termansen explained in an interview with Eagle Eye News.
Despite her efforts, many clubs still failed to comply with the required rules, resulting in their termination. “I tried to be as clear as possible about the guidelines, about the folder process,” Termansen said. “Most of these clubs are terminated because they didn’t even make folders, not even not tracking attendance, but there’s technically no real record of them being a club.”
Still, students whose clubs were terminated were surprised by this decision. After gathering students once a month to craft encouraging cards for people in nursing homes and hospitals, sophomore Claire Kahn was astonished to learn that her club, the Kind Words Club, had lost its privileges. “I had all my attendance in,” Kahn said. “I just think I might have forgotten the recap for some of them.”
Yet in a surprising turn of events, Termansen invited all terminated clubs to reapply for their privileges this semester, rather than waiting until next fall.
“Just show me that there’s a little bit of effort you’re putting in and that you actually care about having your club reinstated,” Termansen said. “I’ve gotten a few responses, where – there’s a section where I just want you to talk about what’s your plan to meet the guidelines and why did you miss them – and there’s a couple that have given me one sentence for that section.”
Termansen makes it clear that clubs at PCDS should be more than just another extracurricular to add to a résumé. With the extensive resources and funding available, she hopes to leave a legacy of implementing a more productive clubs system, ultimately allowing students to pursue their interests in meaningful ways.
