Getting Involved: Societies

 

You’ve survived Orientation Week and Black Monday and fumbled through your first week of proper classes. You’re getting used to the lectures, have made some tentative friendships with the people who sit near you in the lecture hall, and are relying less and less on the brightly coloured lines on the floor of the Newman Building to find your way around (jk, even the third years follow them occasionally). The second week of term arrives and you settle down in Theatre L. But instead of your lecturer talking about glaciation, you are confronted with men and women in brightly coloured t-shirts giving impassioned speeches encouraging you to join the [insert endless list of groups here]. Speeches given, they promptly leave, allowing the lecturer to get on with the class, but not before throwing loaves of bread at the students (yes, that actually happened, I think it was Arts Soc) and telling you to find them at the fresher’s tent.

Curious, you decide to check out this fresher’s tent and at lunch head off with a few of your new friends to suss it out.  You discover the parking lot at the back of the student centre has been transformed. Students swarm the large white tent that has been set up there like flies to a flame, and there is a bouncy castle nearby. Throwing caution to the wind, you brace yourself and join the rabble, plunging into the depths of the tent.

Inside it is hot and crowded. Stalls are set up all around the perimeter, with masses of people flooding them. As soon as you step inside, you are accosted from all sides by people, some oddly dressed and some offering you free food, in an attempt to get you over to their stall. You emerge several hours later dazed and laden with bags of freebies, not quite sure what happened. Thus are you introduced to the world of college societies.

Freshers’ week, which takes place in the second week of term, is when UCD’s societies promote themselves and recruit new members. Most will have stalls in the freshers’ tent, where you can find out more about a society and sign up. UCD has over 100 student societies, so it’s definitely worth a browse; there’s something for everyone. Like acting? Join Dramsoc. Movies? Film Soc. Debating? Then L&H is for you. There’s political groups like Young Fine Gael and Sinn Fein. There’s An Cumann Gaelach, LGBT, and Amnesty International. The list really is endless. If there’s something you’re passionate about, but can’t find a society that caters for it, you can have a go at setting up your own society (you’ll need to go through application procedures and get the go ahead from UCD before it’s made official). It’s 2 euro to join each society in UCD, but most give you big bags of freebies including t-shirts, hoodies and food. All the freebies can be very tempting, and many students go a bit overboard and join every society they can find, only to never participate in it again. I think it’s best to only join the societies that genuinely interest you – you save money (all those two euros add up!) and your inbox won’t be clogged up with emails from groups you have little to no interest in.

Societies are a massive part of college life. They organise trips, events and nights out for their members. It’s a great way to make friends and meet people with similar interests, while becoming more involved in something that’s important to you. It’s definitely worth taking the time to find a society that interests you.