Home > Eating clubs (Princeton University)

meals in one of eleven eating clubs, which are an amalgamation of dining halls and Greek-letter fraternities.

As of Summer 2003, Princeton undergraduates had their choice of eleven eating clubs. Six clubs, namely University Cottage Club , Cap and Gown Club , The Ivy Club, Tiger Inn , Princeton Tower Club , and most recently, Campus Club are selective, and choose their members through a process called " bicker".

Five clubs, namely Cloister Inn , Princeton Charter Club ,

non-selective. Their members are chosen through a lottery.

Each club occupies a large mansion on Prospect Avenue, with the exception of Terrace Club, which is just around the corner on Washington Road. This area is known to students simply as "The Street", and is alive with music, parties and drunken revelry most Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Annual events include Initiations, where new sophomore recruits are introduced to club life, and Houseparties where club members and guests celebrate the end of the Spring term.

All of the clubs have been coeducational since 1991, which is the consequence of a lawsuit filed by Sally Frank against Ivy, Cottage, and Tiger Inn in 1979.

The turn of the 19th century witnessed the rise of the eating clubs, which (along with other new extracurricular activies) eroded the central role that Princeton's secret societies (the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society) played in undergraduate student life. The decline in popularity and enthusiasm of the societies led to their merger into the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.

Some of the eating clubs have themselves fallen on hard times and closed their doors or merged with others. Names of some now-defunct eating clubs include Cannon Club , Elm Club , and Dial Lodge .

External links

• [1], Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library page on the clubs. Provides a history and list of materials in the library.
• [2], the University's list of links to the eating clubs' websites