With a total of 12 student unions and identity-based clubs representing Pali students’ variety of cultures, religions and backgrounds, Pali clearly places an emphasis on student individuality. While the purpose of such clubs are to unify the student body on a personal level, the lack of connection between unions and clubs whose backgrounds overlap actually promotes division.

Concerns regarding Pali’s current process for accepting overly specific clubs arises from one question: at what point do clubs, which are intended to unify students of certain identities, start dividing them instead?

Senior Cole Richter, a member of the Associated Student Body (ASB),  acts as the student union representative, handling matters regarding student unions and clubs on campus. Richter explained how prospective clubs are added to the official club roster.

“It’s really just ‘Do they have an advisor, do they have a board and are they unique?’” Richter said. “A lot of people are interested in going to similar clubs, but I’d say there’s no two clubs that are too similar.” 

While there is nothing prohibiting clubs from having similar functions, student unions are specifically meant to cater to overarching demographics at Pali. However, when a club begins to pertain to a group within a culture, race or religion, students stop connecting with their entire background and are instead enabled to avoid other groups.

This reality is evident through the existence of five different Jewish clubs on campus: Jewish Student Union (JSU), Star Jewish Club, Persian Jewish Club, Ashkenazi Jewish Club (AJC) and Jewish Muslim Alliance.

Sophomore and AJC President Sophia Harelik said that her club is distinct from other Jewish clubs on campus, and is necessary for Ashkenazi students on campus. 

“There’s a lot of cultural differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, who are the majority of Jews who come to other clubs,” Harelik said. “I think that me, and a lot of other Ashkenazis would sometimes feel excluded, so I wanted a space for Ashkenazis to be represented and feel comfortable.”

There is no arguing that Ashkenazi Jews deserve their own, distinct place on campus; however, the creation of a new club doesn’t rectify the issue of social division. If anything, creating specialized clubs enables both Sephardic and Ashkenazi students to evade unification by not having to work alongside each other in the same club anymore.

“[Student unions] are meant to bring students together. It’s a place where you can share your difficulties and your successes with people that you know share a similar background,” Richter said.

The Jewish clubs on Pali’s campus work in the same fashion as student unions, yet they are subject to selectively addressing a portion of the Jewish demographic. In doing so, Jewish students are more divided now than ever, with distance between the groups apparent to even the presidents themselves. 

“I think it’s kind of sad,” Harelik said. “I feel like there should be just one [club], because we’re all Jews.”

To bridge this gap, ASB can take two paths: have student unions reabsorb clubs that fall under their demographic, or choose the more realistic option and require coalitions for clubs that represent the same ethnic or social groups.

In general, Pali already has a representative Jewish Student Coalition, which has been facilitating communication and cooperation between the different Jewish clubs on campus for the past four years. However, this system has two main problems. 

Firstly, although the club presidents are technically in touch when a major event in the Jewish space arises, there is no consistent schedule for check-ins and collaborative meetings. Furthermore, the coalition does little to gather the vast majority of students together on a regular basis.

Another concern is that some Jewish clubs aren’t included in the Jewish Student Coalition, such as the Ashkenazi Jewish Club, Persian Jewish Club and Jewish Muslim Alliance. This results in a lack of communication for the underrepresented and increasingly specific clubs.

“To be completely honest, I haven’t gotten in much contact with the Ashkenazi Jewish club,” senior Ashton Adibi, president of the Star Jewish Club  said. “I don’t have that much connection with [its president], but it would be cool if we had a joint meeting or something.”

The Jewish Student Coalition is a step in the right direction for unifying Jews on Pali’s campus – it just needs regiments to consistently promote a unified front.

In order for the Coalition to uphold its purpose of facilitating partnerships between Pali’s Jewish clubs, it’s necessary that they acclimate to changing circumstances by hosting regular meetings and accommodating all Jewish clubs. By doing so, the current Jewish Student Coalition could very well go from being an already ingenious platform for club communication to becoming a solution to preserve student unity by providing other clubs with a format for how to do the same.

Moreover, the use of coalitions could benefit the series of clubs relating to LGBTQIA+ identifying students: Queer Student Union (QSU), formerly Gay Student Alliance, Trans Awareness Club (TAC) and AroAce Student Union.

Similar to the situation seen amongst Jewish identifying clubs, there seems to be a lack of contact between queer-identifying clubs – specifically in the case of the AroAce Union.

For instance, Grant Smith, the 504 coordinator and teacher sponsor for TAC, was only recently informed that the club existed.

“I didn’t know that there is a asexual and aromantics club, but I’d differ on whether or not we should collaborate to student leadership,” Smith said.

The lack of communication between the TAC and the AroAce Student Union raises some concerns.

Specifically, there has been a movement of revoking support toward trans-identifying people by others in the LGBTQIA+ space. 

“I know that if trans people are under attack, some people in [the] LGBTQ [community] might want to hold on to the rights that they had fought for, that some have died for,” Smith said. “It comes from a place of fear.”

While this type of thinking hasn’t gained much traction in the LGBTQIA+ space, it poses the possibility of LGBTQIA+ identifying clubs in the future specifically being created with the intention of isolating themselves from other groups within the community.

As QSU is meant to cater to all queer identities, creating new clubs that can abstain from associating with other queer clubs just enables students to only focus on the identities that they see the advantage in supporting. In turn, this can decrease the number of students advocating for certain causes, reducing the reach of advocacy groups.

While specificity hypothetically promotes representation, Smith sees the benefits of unification for minority groups on campus.

“I do believe that there’s strength in numbers, so personally, I think there’d be stronger advocacy if [queer clubs] were one voice,” Smith said. “So, as an advocate and an ally, I do see the benefits in consolidation.”

More students allow for more traction, more voices and more cumulative effort being put toward a goal. In the case of both Jewish and queer clubs at Pali, the creation of too many specific clubs has fragmented communities and weakened student unions.

In order to honor the diversity that can be found in specific communities while not sacrificing student unity, clubs need to start forming coalitions that can ensure that all students of a background can collaborate together. 

“We’re already such small minorities,” Harelik said. “Dividing ourselves further just makes us even more of a minority. By uniting together, students are given the strength and support that they need.”