Clubs at Bilkent: what does that mean? If clubs at Bilkent are anything like the clubs at my home university in California, a ‘club’ is an organization that rarely has more than a few members and whose only main activity is to sell food between class hours. I was curious to find out more, so I met with a few Bilkent club leaders to get the scoop on student involvement at Bilkent.
I talked to Başar Arı, Vice President of the Humor Club, Erdem Özkan of the Classical Dance Club, and Kerem Ziraman and B. Gökberk Hisarcıklıoğlu, Vice Presidents of the Cinema Club. First, here’s the breakdown of these clubs’ activities. The Humor Club hosts standup comedy shows every Monday, plus a cartoon movie feature, ‘Toon Time’, every Friday (both events are in the FADA, FB-309, at 6 p.m.). The Cinema Club screens films every Tuesday and Thursday (FB-309 at 6 p.m.), meets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. for a movie workshop, and hosts an online movie magazine at their website (www.sinema.bilkent.edu.tr). The Classical Dance Club organized an international dance club competition last year, and offers weekly instruction in Tango and international Latin dances (Tango lessons are Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m., Latin dancing is Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m.). These activities all culminate in end-of-the-year exhibitions and performances at Mayfest (which sounds very familiar to Sungod, a festival at my home university each spring I think it’s a law that every university around the world must celebrate the month of May).
All of this sounds good on paper, but what are clubs here really like? I discovered some interesting details. For example, did you know that the Cinema Club is creating a short film about Bilkent girls, or that the Classical Dance Club is planning a dance competition for Bilkent students where the winner will receive three months of free dance lessons?
As Başar pointed out, a lot of students sign up for ten different clubs at the beginning of the year, but when school actually gets rolling... participation is a whole new story. The Bilkent website lists 68 clubs, but as students, I think we all know that clubs can be the last thing on your mind if you have tons of work to do or big weekend plans. On the other hand, I must say that from talking with these four representatives, I can tell that there are people on this campus who genuinely want to bring what they are passionate about to Bilkent students, and that’s awesome. I won’t tell anyone to go out and join a club, but just from talking to these four club leaders, I’ve realized that there’s more to do at Bilkent than I had initially thought. After all, if you were a member of only the three clubs that I’ve mentioned, you would have something to do every night of the week! By the end of the semester you’d be dancing the tango, writing screenplays and drawing cartoons. Hmm... maybe there is more to clubs than just food.

Sara Hahn (POLS/Exchange Student)