For the 2025-26 school year, Latin is tightening its clubs policy to ensure that every club operates with structure and prioritizes commitment.
Ninth and 10th Grade Dean of Students Lenny Goldman has been overseeing the new policy.
“We’ve been hearing feedback from students, parents, families, and other teachers around clubs block for a few years about providing more accountability and raising the floor in terms of day-to-day quality of what's happening in clubs,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure that all clubs are actually consistently happening with regular, intentional, thoughtful programming.”
The first major change in the clubs process was the addition of the clubs charter application, which required that students outline their club’s mission statement and plan for consistent meeting times. The deans then reviewed the charters to decide which clubs made the cut for this school year.
According to 11th and 12th Grade Dean of Students Amy Merrell, the change was meant to address the overload of clubs with low attendance. “The amount of clubs we had was oversaturated,” she said. “There were too many clubs and not enough attendance at all the clubs.”
Perhaps the most significant change to the policy is the requirement for faculty advisors to attend every club meeting, where they will record the number of attending students and ensure that all student heads are present. Ms. Merrell’s goal was to make involvement more necessary. She said, If we have [fewer] options, people will be more invested in the clubs that they choose to attend.”
A similar emphasis on commitment applies to student leadership. Club heads must attend meetings; consequently, students could only be heads of a limited number of clubs. Mr. Goldman said, “In reality, you can’t be the student leader of four, five, six, plus different groups, because you can't be in that many places at once.”
He added that the new policy is an attempt to encourage depth, not breadth, when it comes to student involvement. “Doing significant and impactful work, potentially through a more narrow scope, is going to be more noteworthy and impressive than padding your résumé with so many different things that come off as fluff,” Mr. Goldman said.
The policy also revamped how Latin’s service clubs operate. While it requires clubs to meet for at least 50% of club blocks, Director of Student Life Tim Cronister acknowledged that not all organizations operate the same way and would not need to follow the same guidelines. “We have a lot of service-focused organizations that don’t necessarily need to meet every time,” Mr. Cronister said.
After reviewing the charter applications, Mr. Goldman, alongside Mr. Cronister, Upper School Math Department Chair Nichol Hooker, and the heads of the Student Service Learning Board, decided to rebrand service-oriented clubs as Student Service Initiatives. Mr. Cronister explained that the 12 Student Service Initiatives that were approved can use the Learning Commons “as sort of an open work room during clubs block, to give service clubs more flexibility to meet only when they [find] it necessary.”
Additionally, the new policy not only promotes more active participation but also aims to distinguish active clubs from inactive ones. Junior Naomi Herman, Co-Head of the Carrying Hope Club, believed the previous policy failed to create this distinction. “There was no difference between heads of clubs that were consistently doing work, and [heads of] clubs that never met,” she said.
So far, the new policy appears to have positively impacted Latin’s array of clubs and organizations, with many students noticing stronger engagement and increased club attendance. Senior and Head of Latin4Lurie Lauren Hanover said, “We are having a lot of new members this year that weren’t in the club. There are even upperclassmen who are joining, and a lot of people want to help out.”
Mr. Goldman agreed with Lauren that the new policy will increase engagement. “Students are going to want to go to clubs that are actually making good use of their time,” he said. “And so I think as [students] continue to see, ‘Oh, this club is doing fun, important, or meaningful work,’ it's really going to drive engagement.”
Throughout the remainder of the school year, Mr. Goldman and Ms. Merrell will be tracking the productivity and consistency of clubs. Ms. Merrell said, “We have to see with attendance and everything how it is going.”
The new policy primarily endeavors to boost student engagement and commitment in clubs by emphasizing structure and dedication, but the administration also hopes students will gain leadership skills. Mr. Goldman said, “We just want kids to be curious and explore and take on leadership when they are ready and genuinely excited to do so.”
