Where Are the Clubs?

Special IssuePierre Chauvin — Published September 6, 2011

Associations and Clubs at Concordia represent a hugely important part of student life—and there are so many to choose to match your interests.

Clubs and associations range to cover faculty organizations, different countries, religious associations, political beliefs, sports, etc. Each of the groups hold events and workshops throughout the year.

Most associations fall under the authority of the Concordia Student Union, which decides how much funding to allocate to each of them, or under the relevant faculty federation.

There are also a whole variety of unique associations. StarCraft Concordia brings together Concordia students to play the world-famous RTS. The Concordia Women’s Self-Defence Association teaches fundamental defence, distributes safety tips and has resources to help victims of sexual or physical abuse. STAND Concordia is the local branch of STAND Canada, aiming to inform about current human rights violations in the world, as well as convincing governments to intervene. The Typhon Dragon Boat Club provides students with the opportunity to play a 2,500-year old Chinese team paddling sport.

Check out these spaces, and the complete list of the clubs at studentgroups.csu.qc.ca.

There are also 13 associations part of the Fee-Levy Association at Concordia (FLAC), who get their funding directly from students. Being a fee-levy association guarantees financial stability and independence.

The People’s Potato has been providing Concordia students with free vegan meals every weekday of the school year for the last 12 years. Cinema Politica, a now world-wide organization that started at Concordia, screens political documentaries every Monday. Art Matters is a festival organized each year in March, aimed at displaying student’s creations and up-and-coming artists in Montreal galleries.

The Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) mobilizes all kinds of activists for social change. It currently has 29 working groups, such as the Montreal Anarchist Book-fair, TAPthirst (a group that led the fight against bottled water on campus last year), Solidarity Across Borders or the Collectif Opposé à la brutalité policière(COBP).

CJLO Radio, based on the Loyola Campus and run by Concordia students, has been broadcasting 24/7 since 2003 and has won several national radio awards. It was listed by The Huffington Post in the nine best college radio stations in 2010. CJLO broadcasts all kinds of music as well as news; you can listen to CJLO on 1690AM or on their website.

Other members of FLAC are student-run print media, including L’Organe, The Concordian, and, yours truly, The Link.

The Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program, the Sustainable Action Fund and the FEUQ (a provincial lobby group for student’s rights, the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec—pronounced ‘fuck’ in French) are also part of FLAC.

Since there are so many associations, it’s not always easy to get information about them. The best thing to do is to go to the CSU Club Fair organized on September 9th on Reggie’s Terrace or to the QPIRG club fair part of the Disorientation week on September 21st. Associations & Clubs will be tabling at both of these events, and will give you the opportunity to discover Concordia’s rich student life.

For more information vis csu.qc.ca or qpirgconcordia.org.

This article originally appeared in Volume 32, Issue 02, published September 6, 2011.