<p>As a multicultural student, I'm open to making friends regardless of race/ethnicity. Is it true that multicultural clubs at Northwestern tend to be exclusive and elitist? What are the best options for multicultural students in expanding their social circle at Northwestern?</p>
<p>I would say it’s pretty true. I’ve noticed that while groups have events open to members of all ethnicities/cultures, the only students who attend those events are students of the same ethnicity as the group hosting the event. And on top of that, the only people who usually go to these events are students who are on the executive boards of these groups. All the groups are very clique-y. For example, TASC (Taiwanese American Students Club?? Something like that.) has events all the time for their members like karaoke nights, speakers, etc. but the only people who show up to those events are students on the exec board. Also, every spring quarter there’s a Spring Formal hosted by several multicultural student groups like TASC, CSA, KASA, and more, but the only people who go to those are, again, members of the exec boards of those groups. I have a friend who joined the TASC exec board spring quarter instead of in the fall and so she went to Spring Formal and even though she was a member of the exec board she ended up leaving early because it was so clique-y and she felt awkward. I would say if you want to make friends regardless of race/ethnicity then don’t use multicultural groups as a way to make your primary friend group. Try to make it a goal to meet all the people on your floor of your dorm. I’d also say try to live on South campus instead of North campus because South campus is a lot more diverse.</p>
<p>So outside of greek life, what is the best way to expand ones social circle without joining these cliquey clubs? I don’t want to be limited to my dorm</p>
<p>And how open in general are other people. Based off of articles I read off of daily northwestern, it seems most students aren’t open to meeting people from other backgrounds</p>
<p>I love the Daily, but they’re a bunch of ultraliberal world-savers. The stuff you read does happen, but it’s not the norm. Regular everyday occurrences don’t make for good stories.</p>
<p>To be honest, people generally like people. Then there are the people who spend their days studying, but you probably won’t meet them. Join some sport clubs or other interest groups (happiness club! The radio! Piles of sport-type stuff, or anything else, really), and talk to people in your courses. You’ll be fine. Freshmen are desperate for friends, there’s literally nothing to be afraid of.</p>
<p>I think some of the responses are quite judgmental and demonstrate the reasoning why many of the (albeit shallow) diversity initiatives were started last year by the administration. </p>
<p>Needless to say, people who are on exec board are ones who show interest in attending their respective cultural events. I suppose that having some solidarity would lead to the formation of cliques. But just because you personally didn’t “click” with an organization (multicultural or not) doesn’t make the club exclusive… </p>
<p>Many multicultural groups sometimes receive negative reputation from the outsiders simply because they themselves feel self-conscious about their differences and don’t want to make the effort to plunge into that difference (although minority groups have to do it in their daily lives). </p>
<p>Members within those multicultural groups are diverse groups of people. Even if they share the same religious/ethnic/national background, many have different majors, hometowns, political views, etc. Rastogr’s post regarding making friends “regardless of race/ethnicity” somewhat reeks of prejudice since it assumes that friendships formed in multicultural groups are inferior/less diverse than those made in dormitories. Some students may form friendships purely within their residence halls while others may find friends in their majors, clubs, sports, etc. All of them, in my opinion, are just as “cliquey” as the other.</p>