A new policy instituted this year requires all USC clubs to be open to all interested students. To accommodate the new rules, many selective clubs, particularly clubs associated with the Marshall School of Business, have had to adjust their structures.

Several clubs have created “general membership” programs as a kind of stepping stone by teaching students the skills and knowledge required for the clubs’ selective programs. Some clubs, like the USC Consulting Consortium, have collaborated to create a curriculum and plan events.

Trisha Prasanna, a freshman majoring in business administration, said general membership programs can teach students necessary skills and give them a leg up when applying to the clubs’ selective programs. However, she said there aren’t many opportunities to apply knowledge or interact with other students, and she cautioned that clubs are still hard to get into.

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“There’s still a long way to go because there’s definitely a very distinct gap between how many people are applying and how many people are getting in,” she said. “The general membership has not necessarily opened the doors it should. I think what it’s kind of done is it’s opened the door, but you can’t really step through the door.”

Prasanna is a member of the general program for Trojan Investing Society — a finance club — as well as the selective program for Troy Labs — a startup accelerator club.

Lev Reyter, a freshman majoring in business administration, said he understood that general membership programs could help members gain knowledge about an area they may not have had exposure to but felt that the programs can be too large.

“It’s just a bit crazy because there’s so many people there,” Reyter said. “If I come there five minutes early [to a meeting], I’m not going to get a seat.” 

In a statement to the Daily Trojan on Oct. 5, USC Campus Activities wrote that all student organization applications had been reviewed based on whether they met the criteria to be a Recognized Student Organization.

“USC has hundreds of student organizations, which are responsible for the majority of programs and events held on campus, including concerts, lectures, special events, spirit rallies, cultural and social events, and conferences,” USC Campus Activities wrote. “University recognition is required on [an] annual basis to maintain the status of a University Recognized Student Organization.”

In a follow-up statement on Oct. 9, they wrote that RSOs must allow any students to join.

“The university provided a constitution template for all RSOs to follow to ensure all operational requirements were met by each organization,” they wrote. “Groups were contacted to make the appropriate edits and changes if needed.”

USC Campus Activities added that they would re-evaluate the requirements if necessary.

“Campus Activities and its academic partners are in continual conversations about RSO requirements, and those organizations who are unable to meet those requirements. Those conversations include what changes may happen in the future and how to ensure all organizations are following the requirements,” they wrote.

Some clubs have taken different approaches to the new rules about club accessibility, such as the Value Investing Group, which Reyter said had an extremely competitive selection process based on the experiences of some of his friends who applied. 

A representative for VIG confirmed that the club does not have a formal general membership program but said the club had received approval from Marshall administration to fulfill the requirement by hosting two events throughout the year that are open to all USC students. The club held those events in previous years, even before the new membership policies kicked in.

“The way that Marshall articulated it to us is that there’s not a strict rubric or guideline,” the VIG representative said. “It very much is figuring out how we can best serve the students because that’s the whole reason why all of this exists in the first place.”

When asked whether VIG had received permission to fulfill the requirement by holding public events, USC Campus Activities did not confirm or refute that this was the case.

The club representative added that it functions like a “book club” in the first semester and tries to keep its numbers small to facilitate student discussion. They also said the club has a mailing list, which is not limited to members of the selective core group, where they send information about the pitches and discussions that happen in meetings.

“The reason why we don’t have a formal open membership program for the Marshall community is that [we] want to keep it open to the USC community writ large,” the VIG representative said. “We don’t see any reason to exclude it, to just be Marshall-specific. And so we kind of view those events as being our ‘open membership.’”

Marshall club applications tend to involve several essays and multiple rounds of interviews, according to Prasanna. She said she also attended a social mixer for her application to Troy Labs’ selective program. 

On the other hand, Vedant Agrawal, a freshman majoring in business administration, said his application to the Trojan Investing Society’s general membership program only required a few essays.

Prasanna said she wasn’t able to apply to the selective Trojan Investing Society Leaders Program, which is only open to sophomores and second-semester freshmen.

Prasanna said regardless of whether or not being in a club’s general membership program would increase a student’s chances of getting into the more selective program in the future, it can provide access to other club members, which can be helpful when the time comes to be interviewed.

The VIG representative said they aren’t able to open their program to all students due to the club’s nature but that they are trying to make it as accessible as they can.

“It’s not perfect; there’s definitely things we could do a little bit better, and obviously, with the way that we brand ourselves and the way that we communicate with students — it’s all a work in progress, but I would say we really are doing our best in terms of making more of these events open to USC and Marshall,” the VIG representative said.

Agrawal said he’s “happy” with the current general membership requirement because of the opportunities it gives to freshmen who may not have had extensive prior experience. At the same time, he said it adds to the work that club leaders have to do and that allowing selectivity to some extent can be useful.

“I’d say [the current general membership policy] is perfect, but you can be a little more selective, like read the application and not try to select everyone but the one who actually displays genuine interest in finance,” Agrawal said.

Reyter doesn’t think that clubs should be required to have a general membership program at all.

“There has to be a different way to do it, and also, we’re in college now,” he said. “I don’t think that anybody should be guaranteed entry to a club [simply] because USC says everybody gets in the club.”