Student survival guide: To meet people just join a club

RUTH WYNWARD* samples the range of weird and wonderful clubs and societies on offer.

From coffee appreciation to paranormal investigation of cemeteries, the clubs and activities are an essential part of the student experience.

A sense of participation is crucial to successful student life, says Cilla Tofilau, who helps to co-ordinate clubs at the Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT). The first six weeks can make or break a student's tertiary experience, she says.

"I've met so many people who find it hard just to say 'hello' to someone. That is more stress on top of enrolment hassles."

Auckland University alone boasts more than 100 clubs. Simon Coffey, its clubs and events co-ordinator, says clubs are a great way to meet people and experience life on campus. This is important, given Auckland's size.

"Otago markets the [Dunedin] lifestyle very strongly, as students are coming from out of town. But we are a city with a uni, as opposed to a uni town."

The assortment of clubs at Auckland includes Spirit - the Society of Paranormal Investigation, Research and Information Training. Spirit's Matt Brache says it is a place to meet people of like mind.

They engage in activities such as photographing cemeteries with night-vision gear and recording electromagnetic fields in the Auckland Domain.

The club is mainly research-based, Brache says, but "we do have a lot of fun when we go out. You never quite know what you're going to find at the end of an evening."

Auckland University clubs do not have a monopoly on ingenuity.

The year-old MACS, Massey Albany Coffee Society, grew out of a concern at the lack of quality coffee as well as a desire for a campus social life.

"I guess we just wanted to turn the place into something that feels like a university," says Debbie Jackson, one of the founders.

Five hundred students successfully petitioned for the coffee club to be able to continue when it had a stand-off with the university over the threat its 50c coffees were posing to the student cafeteria.

At Manukau, MIT Out is an important contact point for gay, lesbian and transgender students in a big institution, says founder Sean Hurst.

Student Services (the body that replaced the students' association) supplies a room for members, plus tea, coffee and biscuits and free photocopying.

Matt Gorinski, club development officer at Massey's Albany campus, is amused by the diversity of interests among students.

"There's this chick trying to get a V8 club in process - she's really into her Holden."

Members of Massey's Fight Club can learn 10 different types of martial arts. A science appreciation club, Alpha Sigma Sigma, aims to build camaraderie among science students. Planned events include solar-car racing with student-designed cars, says founding member Rob McDonald.

"University is huge. We wanted to create some sort of structure different from lecture theatres, where everyone's almost hostile."

Unitec provides up to $500 a year for each of its clubs, but co-ordinator Dylan Keating says there are restrictions. "Obviously, if it was a let's-get-pissed-in-the-middle-of-the-park club, we would probably draw the line there."

Lists of clubs can be found on most student websites or obtained from the students associations. Many institutions have a clubs day during orientation week.

If nothing appeals, clubs co-ordinators suggest you create your own distraction from lectures.

* Ruth Wynyard is a recent journalism graduate from the Auckland University of Technology.