Societies: are they as welcoming as they seem?

Last year during freshers, my lesbian friend asked me to join her in going to the LGBTQ+ society’s game night or ‘Gay-mes Night’ as it was called due to anxiety about having to go and meet new people alone. This anxiety turned out to not be unfounded, as for a society full of individuals excluded and judged by society, ironically themselves were judging and exclusionary of two potential newcomers. This raises the question – can societies encourage cliques and exclusion?

The Students' Union would argue that societies are an essential part of university social life, with Newcastle having more than 160 to choose from with memberships starting at just a fiver! – this is however the minimum price with many societies asking for much more, something which during a cost of living and learning crisis for many will simply not be attainable. These societies range from the fast-paced 20-minute society to the 93% society striving for greater equality between the private and state-educated divide. These societies provide a great opportunity to meet people at university with a shared or newfound interest, something which most would consider a great thing. 

These positives can quickly be overshadowed by the fact that firstly societies can be a perfect environment for cliques to manifest with people being in an environment where they are surrounded by like-minded people. This was the experience of myself and my friend at the aforementioned ‘Gay-mes Night’. At this social, the people were incredibly unfriendly, unwelcoming and unkind, outright rejecting our attempts to join in with games of Dungeons and Dragons, UNO, and conversation starters. Perhaps we didn’t seem gay or cool enough for these people, we’ll never know as unsurprisingly we did not return for the next social – however, it did provide the two of us with great material to bond over and make fun of.

Elisabeth Gores

Arguably one of the most important parts of joining any university is the societies. A place for anyone to meet friends ‘for life’ and get involved with hobbies and sports that they love. Right? I want to uncover whether societies do offer a place for friendship and growth, or if they simply create further anxieties and stress to the pressure of first joining university.

In 2019, Homes for Students wrote an article titled ‘Benefits of joining a university society’. In this article are 9 detailed reasonings of the benefits, with some reasons including learning work/life balance, one-time opportunities, meeting new people, and enhancing your CV. At first sight, all of these seem beneficial for any individual, and that is because they are. It is true that joining a society does all these things. I know from first-hand experience the benefits of joining societies. In the first year, I tried out several societies to see if I would enjoy them, for example, Surf society. While I did not continue with surf, I met a friend who I currently live with now because of it, and the fear of having to walk into a room of strangers and introduce myself to people massively improved my confidence. Truth be told, the only society that I have continued since coming to Newcastle last year is The Courier, which has taught me so many valuable skills and introduced me to so many lovely people (and it will look good on my CV).

However, this is not the case for everybody or for every society. Of course, every society will be useful for some and not for others. The overwhelming anxiety of walking into a room filled with strangers does not always end with that person’s confidence being improved. For some, it simply ends in further stress and sometimes self-consciousness. Now, this is not to blame on any persons running any society, but perhaps instead the culture of having to join societies. On all university websites, societies are endlessly promoted as a vital part of university life, engraining in students’ brains that they must join some. This pressure can make those who do not join societies to feel potentially isolated and left out, despite the reality of university, which is that there are other ways to meet people. For example, people on your course, meeting people on nights out, simply meeting friends through friends and so on.

As a second year at Newcastle, my advice would be to at least try some societies as you never know what it might lead to and who you might meet, however, do not feel pressured to join any as they are not as large a part of university life as people make them out to be.

Rhys James