On Monday, January 10, the Committee on Student Activities (COSA) once again began its annual club proposal process, an opportunity for students to present and start their own clubs on campus.
An organization of 12 students working in cooperation with the Student Activities Office, COSA helps manage and improve the quality of club life on campus. Currently, the group oversees 92 recognized student clubs, as well as two affinity groups, five spiritual life organizations, and 14 student organizations, which are mostly managed by faculty.
According to Assistant Director of Student Activities Ms. Colleen Kazar, who is also the faculty adviser to COSA, 41 proposals were submitted to COSA last year. Among them, 23 proposals were approved, 14 were denied, and four were incorporated as a part of the newly formed Community Service Club and Environmental Action Coalition.
Among the proposals that were denied, one was because it was submitted by a sixth-form student, another was because it violated school policy, six were because the proposals were deemed to be personal projects or one-off events, and the remaining six were because their mission statements aligned closely with those of pre-existing clubs. These six proposals were recommended to collaborate with the pre-existing club that shared a similar mission statement.
“A lot of them were denied towards the beginning,” shared Ms. Kazar. “Last year, we didn’t see a lot of clubs get through the whole club proposal process and then get denied. I prefer not to do that because I think it gets people’s hopes up and it’s not really fair to stop them in their tracks.”
The process begins with a short written application and a meeting with a member of COSA. Then, potential clubs will be cleared to have an initial interest meeting, after which they will begin to develop their club constitution. Once those steps are completed, the club will gain official COSA recognition. For those interested in starting a club, the process is discussed in length on the Choate portal.
Finn McGaan ’22, who founded the politics-focused publication The Choate Inquiry last year, said, “The application process was very smooth. The level of detail was apt — I didn’t find myself overextending during my junior winter, but I also didn’t feel like I was breezing through it.”
Rajeev Roy ’23, the founder and president of the Choate branch of HOSA, agreed with McGaan. “It wasn’t extremely rigorous, but it was pretty thorough,” Roy said.
COSA has the ultimate say on whether a proposal is accepted or denied. “After the applications come in, an initial meeting is held with the student who proposed the club, their [club] adviser, and one or two representatives of COSA,” said Ms. Kazar. In that first meeting, the student who proposed the club elaborates upon its mission, values, how the club will be successful, and how it differs from those already on campus.
“The representatives of COSA bring a recommendation back to the rest of the COSA board as to whether or not they think that a club should move on to the next steps. The reason that we do that is because we get so many club proposals it’s hard for all of COSA to go to every single interest meeting,” she said. The pool of potential new clubs narrows down the most after that first meeting with COSA.
The determination on whether a proposal is accepted is more complex than a simple majority vote. “It’s not just one person’s opinion that determines the success or failure of a club. It sparks a conversation, and I typically take part in these conversations as well so that I ensure there is fairness in that process,” said Ms. Kazar. It is these conversations that ultimately determine whether a proposal passes or not. In particular, COSA assesses the longevity of proposed clubs, the amount of interest demonstrated by the student founder, and how the club differs from pre-existing ones.
“COSA is dedicated to growing a healthy club life without over-saturating it, and we hope to work alongside the student body in helping them in understanding any decisions that we might make to ensure that this balance in club life is maintained,” said Rhea Shah ’22, the current COSA chair.
Among the 92 current clubs, 58 of them have been active for more than two years, according to Ms. Kazar. Notable changes such as the combination of numerous community service clubs into one unified Community Service Club and mergers to form the Environmental Action Coalition have contributed to the seemingly low number of long-term clubs.
As of January 26, 37 new club proposals have been submitted to COSA this year. The club proposal form closes tonight, January 28, at midnight, setting into motion another cycle of the club creation process.
