After only eight years of existence, the men’s social club Chi Lambda Chi will officially disband itself on May 1.
“Chi Lambda Chi is primarily disbanding due to a prolonged issue with finding and securing a sponsor,” said Nick Black, a graduate student who was president of the club last semester and who is still an active member of the club. “To clarify, we are dissolving our club. The administration is not disbanding us.”
Chi Lambda Chi is currently working with an interim sponsor. Black said another reason the club is disbanding is to lighten the workload on officers. He said he and other club members were tired of dealing with the formalities that a social club requires.
“The amount of time that is now required to function as a social club at Harding also played an important role in our decision to dissolve,” Black said. “Every club has a niche. Chi Lambda Chi’s niche was to be a relaxed club that just wanted to hang out and have a good time. … For us, it isn’t worth documenting every detail of our club activities and seeking approval from the administration, when we could do it unofficially without all the administrative work.”
Black said the bulk of the work included reporting any activities that the club partakes in together. He defined an activity as anything from a formal to more than five club members getting together to play basketball.
“We have to document any activity, who attends the activity, what will be done at the activity, how far away, and how much the activity will cost,” Black said. “We must keep up with who is eligible to be active and who is not, who is studying abroad and who isn’t. Everything has to be reported, and for students with full time schedules, it’s hard to do.”
Assistant Dean of Students Kara Abston is helping take care of the formalities of dissolving the club, and she said that it was completely the decision of the club to dissolve. She said the club had no problems with the administration, disciplinary action or anything of the sort.
“They were trying to figure out their options, and the majority decided to sign a letter and officially dissolve the club beginning May 1,” Abston said.
Senior Stephan Raab, also a club member, said Chi Lambda Chi had options to continue being active in social clubs, but would have had to merge their club with another.
“We decided we wanted to choose our legacy and end it how it’s always been instead of being absorbed into another club,” Raab said. “Basically, we wanted to keep the legacy of Chi Lambda Chi what it was.”
Black said he is glad that he was part of a social club and that he did benefit from his experience in Chi Lambda Chi.
“I think the experience I had with social clubs is similar to the experience most everyone else has,” Black said. “I grew closer to the members of my club, I made lifetime friendships and had quite honestly some of the best times of my life.”
