Is There a Lack of Stud Engagement at AUBG? Nov. 25, 2024 3 55 new students. The largest class in AUBG history. This is an evolving trend over the last few years and created the expectation of even more student engagement. Clubs are at the heart of student life at AUBG but returning students quickly realized something: Recruitment parties were empty. The freshmen were nowhere to be seen. Soon, rumors began circulating about where all the new students were. Was the largest class in AUBG history merely just a number? This sparked the debate of whether this idea of students having no interest in clubs this year was actually true. We put this theory to the test and asked some clubs about how many people fi lled out application forms this year compared to previous ones. Below, you can see a line chart and table showing the applicants for each club over the last three years and the total number of admitted students per year. The six clubs that were asked to provide information managed to show us some truth in the rumors. The biggest outlier was StartUP, jumping from 26 applicants in 2022 to 71 in 2024. This is an astounding 173% increase and is far and away the most applied-to club out of those surveyed. (Note: StartUP did not provide the exact numbers, but this is an estimation based on the information they provided.) In 2023, the incoming class grew by 15.2% compared to the previous year and by 17.2% in 2024. Many clubs expected this to be refl ected at recruitment parties as well. However, these parties had low attendance for many clubs, and club members noticed the lack of freshmen’s participation. This brought up the question of whether students are not interested in clubs this year and why this may be the case. Apart from StartUP, none of the other clubs experienced an increase in applicants in both 2023 and 2024. Why is this happening? The student body is encountering serious growth and when compared to 2022, this year’s admitted class is 35% larger. Five out of the six clubs surveyed did not reach the same growth rate during this period. This can be attributed to other factors as well, such as non-engaging promotion, organization, events, etc. These are variable factors, so it is diffi cult to pinpoint how accurate they are, but one thing we know is that there is an increasing student body, but not an increase in club applications. This is especially strange for a university that prides itself on its community. Kaloyan Gavrilov, a fi rst-year student, shares some light. He had plans to apply for clubs but decided against it because he was unsure whether he could manage the workload with academia and club activities. “I have tried meeting with people and as far as I saw, most of them are very shy and are not really as extroverted as I thought they would be,” says Kaloyan when speaking about the class of 2028. 43 41 38 31 25 20 8 Fall 2024 | AUBG Daily 2022 2023 2024
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