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The majority of upperclassmen at Princeton University take their
meals in one of eleven eating clubs, which are an amalgamation of
dining halls and Greek-letter fraternities.
As of the beginning of 2005, Princeton undergraduates had their choice of eleven
eating clubs. Five clubs, namely University Cottage Club, Cap and Gown Club, The Ivy Club, Tiger Inn, and Princeton Tower Club are selective and choose
their members through a process called "bicker".
Six clubs, namely Campus Club, Cloister Inn, Princeton Charter Club,
Colonial Club, Quadrangle Club, and Terrace Club, are
non-selective. Their members are chosen through a sign-in process and lottery.
Each club occupies a large mansion on Prospect Avenue, with the exception of
Terrace Club, which is just around the corner on Washington Road. This area
is known to students simply as "The Street", and is alive with music, parties and drunken revelry most Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Annual events include Initiations, where new sophomore recruits are introduced to club life, and Houseparties where club members and guests celebrate the end of the Spring term.
All of the clubs have been coeducational since 1991, which is the
consequence of a lawsuit filed by Sally Frank against Ivy, Cottage, and Tiger Inn in 1979.
The turn of the 19th century witnessed the rise of the eating clubs, which (along with other new extracurricular activies) eroded the central role that Princeton's secret societies (the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society) played in undergraduate student life. The decline in popularity and enthusiasm of the societies led to their merger into the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.
Ivy was the first of the permanent eating clubs. (Short-lived eating associations had existed beforehand.) It was follwed shortly after by University Cottage Club.
Some of the eating clubs have themselves fallen on hard times and closed their doors or merged with others. Names of some now-defunct eating clubs include Cannon Club, Elm Club, and Dial Lodge.
External links
- [1] (http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/eat-club.html), Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library page on the clubs. Provides a history and list of materials in the library.
- [2] (http://www.princeton.edu/Siteware/EatingClubs.shtml), the University's list of links to the eating clubs' websites
- A Princeton Companion (http://etc.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/eating_clubs.html) page on the clubs.
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