The University of Oregon has over 400 clubs, ranging from sports to business-oriented organizations.
In interviews with the Daily Emerald, several campus club members shared their perspectives on what it’s like to run a club and the struggles of their clubs.
UO Taekwondo Club
In early 2024, a group of students started the UO Taekwondo Club after a decade of hiatus.
According to Cole de Zoeten, event coordinator of the UO Taekwondo Club, after a 14-year break, the club received clearance to become a UO club sport in September.
According to Ben Prahl, program director of UO Club Sports, the UO Taekwondo Club was forced into retirement 14 years ago from the UO Club Sports Office because it didn’t have anyone willing to take over for the executive team after the previous team graduated.
However, the new executive team has levied for taekwondo to return to UO as one of its listed athletic clubs.
“We lost one club last year that was disk golf, they [executive team] moved on to graduate with no one to take over… so we kind of saw it as an opportunity to say we [UO Club Sports] can let Taekwondo in.”
De Zoeten described Taekwondo as a “niche” sport.
“We’re the Taekwondo club and that’s a super niche sport,” De Zoeten said. “Nobody has been exposed to it [Taekwondo]… [and] not really prevalent in a lot of the things that anybody does.”
The Taekwondo Club meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. and holds an open mat room from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
UO Powerlifting Club
UO Powerlifting Club is a 40-member organization that was started in 2021.
Similarly to the Taekwondo Club, Damian Doan, president of the UO Powerlifting Club, described powerlifting as a “niche sport.”
“Many of the people who are interested in or know really anything about the sport were introduced to it in high school,” Doan said. “If they [club members] didn’t start in high school then it can feel really intimidating for many people, especially women to start lifting once they’ve started college. “
According to Doan, it is difficult to retain female lifters because powerlifting is considered an “intimidating sport.”
“In powerlifting, it’s especially difficult to retain new girls because it’s a bit of an intimidating sport,” Doan said. “From my experience… The girl members who come out of high school powerlifting already are more prone to join the club than people who have never been introduced to powerlifting before.”
UO Presents
UO Presents meets every week to watch movies together.
Each week, a member of the club selects a movie that they want to introduce to the group and after the movie is over, they discuss why they liked it. They then follow that up with discussions about the film with the group as a whole.
In an email statement to the Emerald, Annika Segesta, president of the UO Presents Club, said that while UO Presents is a very “interesting” and “enjoyable” experience, it can sometimes be hard to maintain its members.
“[The hardest part is] getting people to get more invested in many movies they haven’t heard of,” Segesta said. “Some movies on our schedule are definitely more popular than others.”
UO Swim Club
UO Swim Club’s social chair, Sara Swinson, said that the organization has been around since 2014.
This year, the UO Swim Club has more lowerclassmen than upperclassmen, as Swinson has observed that lowerclassmen seem to have more time to dedicate to doing club sports.
“The most nerve-racking part of joining a new club is always the first day. You never know what to expect or what ‘normal’ looks like, so anxiety is always high, but we try to combat that by providing a lot of information beforehand and reminding everyone to give themselves and everyone else some grace as we get into the swing of things each year,” Swinson said.
The UO Swim Club and all other clubs can be found at all student club events, like sports fairs and flock parties.
