Club days at UHS occur monthly. They present an opportunity for students from all grade levels to come together and participate in all sorts of student-led activities. They have all kinds of purposes including academics, entertainment, hobbies, shared interests, and community service work. But should club days should be more frequent or not?
There are dozens of unique clubs that students can choose from, and the number of students that participate in clubs across the school is over a thousand, according to assistant principal Mrs. Ida Davis, the administrator of clubs at UHS. Students can only attend clubs if they fulfill the eligibility requirements, requiring a 2.00 GPA or higher.
However, club days are still restricted by their monthly schedule. During club day, each block is divided in half, with one half of the block being focused on classwork while the other allows students to head to their clubs. This means that an individual club only meets for 45 minutes per month during the school day.
Why are club days only once per month? “Club days were decided that we would do them once a month years ago. We wanted to make sure that every student was included. We said during the school day, they would meet once a month, but clubs can meet outside the school day as often as they want,” Davis reports.
In addition, according to Davis on school club meetings, “most clubs only do it once a month, but there are other clubs that meet after school.”
Due to this infrequent meeting schedule, many student leaders and members of clubs who meet during club day feel that their circumstances would be greatly improved if club days were more frequent throughout the month.
Leah Jeffries (Class of 2026), a leader of the Hawkeye Newspaper club who helps to organize the club’s activities, has spoken out about her opinion on the subject. “I do think it should be more frequent, once a month isn’t enough, especially if the club isn’t able to meet outside of school,” says Jeffries, though her club does meet after school. “It would give us an opportunity to cover more material than we would with the amount of days that we have now.”
The president of the Graphics Design club, Logan Midorii, has also resonated with this same belief. His club only meets during club day and he has expressed wanting more club days to support the club’s goal to “teach skills to new or experienced artists and designers, and promote artists” and to incentivize further creativity within his club. “I would personally love it if club days were more frequent, it would allow us to be able to take on longer, more challenging projects and truly have the time for more creativity.”
Lastly, the president of the Rocketry club, Rohil Cheepala, has further commented on how more club days would benefit his club’s goal of accessibility within the rocketry community. On the topic, he has stated that “more frequent club days would help us plan alongside the club better. It would also go a long way towards building a closer-knit community where we aren’t as exclusive as other clubs.”
Cheepala has also emphasized how more frequent club days would promote member attendance. According to him, it would “allow more involvement for people as well as ensure that the people who may find it difficult to attend normal meetings have the opportunity to enjoy rocketry as much as we do.”
What do club advisors have to say about this? Club advisors are the teachers and other UHS faculty members who are required to endorse the club in order for the club to be officially founded.
Travis Zimmerman, the club advisor of the D&D club, the Magic the Gathering club, and the Future Business Leaders of America club, believes that more frequent club days per month could lead to beneficial outcomes.
One benefit is that club days greatly support students who may not be able to meet after school. According to Zimmerman, “having it once a month is novel for me because if you wanted to be a part of a club in other schools, you would have to make time after school to do it. That can impose a restriction on some students who may not have transportation or can’t get to school easily.”
Furthermore, according to the Commonwealth Charter Academy, a cyber charter school, there are numerous benefits to participation in school clubs. This includes introducing students to new hobbies, forming friendships, developing leadership skills, improving college applications, and strengthening other skills as well.
However, club advisers and school administrators are aware of the drawbacks of having more club days. “One of the things we are graded on as a school is attendance. But one of the things that we’ve noticed from the back end is that when we have club days, there is a higher student absence. So people just don’t come to school. They feel detached,” says Zimmerman.
Davis has also explained the potential consequences of frequent club days. “The other thing about doing it during the school day more than once a month is higher level classes. You have so much instruction that you have to get in, if we keep taking away from instructional time to do the club during the day, then it interferes with that.”
“I would say if we did more club meetings I would like to see it happen after school,” Davis concludes.
It’s clear that there is a divide on whether or not club days should be more frequent at UHS. There are both positives and negatives to this situation, and for now club day will remain at its once per month schedule.
