student organizations – Houghton STAR

by Anna Catherman

Tuesday nights at Nielsen look livelier than they have in recent semesters. Outside, skateboarders and roller skaters zip around the parking lot. Inside, kayakers splash and practice rolling their boats in the pool.

They are the members of Skate Club and Paddle Sports, which are two of the four new clubs on campus this semester. Houghton University has more than 20 active student organizations this fall. New to the roster are Skate Club, Paddle Sports, The Roaring Sheep (Ultimate Frisbee), and Sports Marketing Group.

Paddle Sports took a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of the Nielsen swimming pool; however, under the guidance of the director of EPIC Adventures, Dr. Laura Thayer, senior Natalie Sommons is reviving the club.

Sommons said she was inspired to revive the club after going on a whitewater kayak trip at Rushford Lake over the summer as part of her summer internship with EPIC Adventures.

According to Sommons, the club has drawn people who aren’t the “outdoorsy” type that the Sports, Recreation and Wellness department usually caters to.

An average of eight to nine students attend the club’s weekly practice sessions. These nights are open to anyone and serve as both an educational and social event.

Another club for active outdoor enthusiasts, Skate Club is a brand-new addition to campus. According to Sophomore Caleb See, the club’s founder, “All kinds of wheels except bicycles” are welcome at the club’s open skate nights.

There were already many people on campus who wanted to skate, See explained, and the club allows them to gather officially and signals to new students that there is a skater community on campus. The club has a group chat that members use to coordinate additional, informal skating sessions.

Skate Club is eager to teach those who want to learn and is in the process of purchasing loaner skateboards and helmets, which will be available for any student to borrow during club meetings.

Those interested in team sports may be intrigued to learn that Ultimate Frisbee, a longstanding Houghton tradition, also gained club status this fall. Its members are known as “The Roaring Sheep,” for reasons lost to time.

According to club president Benjamin Dostie, a senior, Ultimate Frisbee has existed since the early 2000s, but did not become a club until this year due to the students’ desire to foster the spontaneous nature of the activity. This year, though, the attitudes shifted, and Frisbee players voted to pursue club status to gain funding for jerseys, equipment, and access to more Houghton facilities.

Jana Newberry, Director of Student Engagement, has been instrumental in helping these clubs become fully-sanctioned student organizations. If things go according to plan, more new and revived clubs will be joining their ranks.

According to Newberry, there has been talk of reviving the Martial Arts club, another casualty of the pandemic. Lacrosse, which is no longer an officially sanctioned university sport, is in the process of becoming a club as well.

When asked to pitch their clubs to students, Sommons, Dotsie, and See all responded enthusiastically.

“College can provide a lot of new experiences,” Sommons said. “[Paddle sports is] a rare opportunity…to learn those kind[s] of skills.”

She noted students have called the pool sessions their “therapy.”

Dotsie noted via email, “Ultimate Frisbee is a great way to relieve stress through physical activity…We have a welcoming team and even those with little to no experience are able to participate meaningfully in the game.”

See responded more simply but no less passionately: “It’s a real rad time.” ★

By Vanessa Bray (’21)

Houghton’s newly formed Rainbow Alliance Cooperative (RAC) is a student-led organization with the goal of helping to further Houghton’s invitation of community to reach everyone. RAC is not a subgroup of “We Are All Houghton.” These two groups have developed separately, with “We Are All Houghton” being made up primarily of Alumni, and RAC consisting of current students. Although these groups are unaffiliated, RAC Event Manager, Emily Warner (‘21) says they “plan to listen well to all members of the Houghton community, including alumni, so that we can heal past hurt and avoid future harm.”

Warner states, “the unifying purpose of RAC is to love people well.” RAC Student Networker Sarah Halvorson (‘22) adds that the cooperative exists to “create a space for loving, healthy, Christ-centered relationships amongst all peoples of any sexuality, gender, religious background, political or religious stance on the matter. To create a space where conversations can be had and people can connect with each other and support each other…it exists to advocate for the continued inclusion of LGBTQ+ students and to increase visibility for the community at Houghton.”

The RAC is not an LGBTQ+ advocacy group aiming to change the college’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues. Neither is the group intended to subvert any beliefs or convictions that community members may have regarding LGBTQ+ matters. “This isn’t some kind of progressive agenda…” says Halvorson, “this is how can we make a college that talks a lot about community, a real community for all people coming from all backgrounds, because at this point not everyone feels super accepted into the community. So, how do we get those people to connect and to feel loved and safe?”

Talk of developing a space dedicated to welcoming this dialogue began last semester. Inspired by the events that took place surrounding the painting and repainting of the Spirit Rock, RAC Coordinator Chelsea Wood (‘22) explains “We saw a need for something to be created on campus for support… after that people were like ‘we need to have a more official thing that’s dealing with topics like this on campus.’ So, we formed a cabinet and went through the process of trying to make it a club and realized that that wasn’t really what we were trying to make…Then [we] went a different route of being something similar to the Mosaic Center.” The Rainbow Alliance Cooperative falls under the direction of the Dean of the Chapel’s Office and has been described by Dean Jordan as a support group.

The cooperative has worked closely with Dean Jordan to ensure that RAC continues to exist in concord with the values held by the college. Both Wood and Halvorson emphasized RAC’s desire to “work with the school.” They expressed gratitude for the positive reception and opportunity granted by Houghton’s faculty and staff towards instituting RAC. Dean Jordan said he is “…So thankful for the current groups of students involved with this because they have great ideas that are consistent with our mission.”

One main goal for the RAC is to establish longevity. “What can come from this being on campus is so big,” says Wood, “and being able to lay down the groundwork for something that can last after us is incredible.”

The RAC does not intend for their cooperative to foster an exclusive dialogic space. Their objective is to provide opportunities for students who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, and those who do not respectively, to share in equal engagement. RAC’s advisor Michael Green is hopeful that the Rainbow Alliance Cooperative’s presence will help to “demystify LGBTQ+ people on campus and lead to a stronger and more inclusive Houghton community overall.”

So far, the RAC held a well-received meet-and-greet on March 4th and led LGBTQ+ sensitivity RA training. They have a variety of upcoming events planned to offer different ways for anyone on campus to be involved and engage with the topic.

You can follow them on Instagram: @hcrainbowalliance & Facebook: Rainbow Alliance Cooperative. The RAC invites you to email them any questions you may have at hcrainbowalliance@gmail.com ★