{"id":209408,"date":"2025-09-08T05:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209408\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T05:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:20:11","slug":"wharton-bans-multi-round-interviews-for-club-applications-citing-hazing-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209408\/","title":{"rendered":"Wharton bans multi-round interviews for club applications, citing hazing concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"04-13-25-huntsman-sanjana-juvvadi\"\/
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Wharton implemented new guidelines about club recruitment for the 2025-26 academic year.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Chenyao Liu<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

As student groups begin welcoming new members for the 2025-26 academic year, the Wharton School has implemented new guidelines for affiliated clubs\u2019 recruitment processes \u2014 including a ban on multiple rounds of interviews.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The update, first announced in an email to Wharton club leaders on July 30, will change the recruitment process for student organizations officially recognized by the University, which have previously been criticized<\/a> as overly competitive. In the email, Mike Elias \u2014 the senior director of strategy & operations for the Wharton Undergraduate Division \u2014 described the need to stop \u201cactivities that create barriers to access or impose undue stress\u201d upon students.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Elias cited the Stop Campus Hazing Act<\/a>, which was first signed into law in 2024 by former Benjamin Franklin Professor of Presidential Practice and President Joe Biden. He wrote that activities that induce \u201cphysical, emotional, or psychological\u201d stress are not permitted, as they \u201cmay be classified as hazing, even if they are traditional or longstanding club processes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In the event that a student files a report of on-campus hazing, Penn will be legally required to \u201cprominently publish\u201d a description of the report \u2014 including the club\u2019s name \u2014 on its website, according to the email.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Student club leaders attended the Student Organization Summit on Aug. 25 and Club Leader Training on Sept. 6 for \u201cfurther conversation and guidance\u201d on the updated policies.\n<\/p>\n

In the email, Elias encouraged club leaders to focus on \u201cgauging student interest, goals, and willingness to satisfy the necessary time commitment or expectations associated with club participation\u201d without requiring \u201cprior experience or subject matter expertise.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n

Wharton Undergraduate also recommended a shift toward engaging general body members as opposed to only student leaders. The email urged \u201cfirst-year students to participate in the General Body Membership (GBM) as a pathway to committee engagement.\u201d Potential committees, for example, should be determined based on \u201cGBM engagement and demonstrated capacity observed during the Fall semester.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Penn\u2019s anti-hazing guidelines and resources<\/a> currently include methods of reporting instances of hazing, \u00a0training to improve overall club culture, and a description of the Rethink Hazing Campaign \u2014 which specifies how certain activities \u201cdo little to build a member\u2019s skills\u201d and may still qualify as hazing.\n<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian previously reported<\/a> on student concerns that the Wharton club application process is stressful and unfair \u2014 falling under the definition of hazing, according to the Wharton Undergraduate Division and the Stop Campus Hazing Act.\n<\/p>\n

At the time, students voiced frustration<\/a> about clubs with single-digit acceptance rates<\/a> and multi-stage application processes<\/a>, particularly when looking to meet new people and learn more about chosen interests. Students also noted that most written applications precede one to two rounds of evaluative interviews before clubs notify applicants of their decisions.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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Get our newsletter, DP Daybreak, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.<\/p>\n

The Wharton Council \u2014 the student body that supports Wharton clubs \u2014 has made efforts<\/a> to make the application process more equitable over the past several years. In 2016, for example, the organization included measures<\/a> designed to make the recruiting process more transparent and casual.\n<\/p>\n

Other proposed changes included a standardized application, uniform decision notification dates, and restrictions on conducting group interviews.\n<\/p>\n

In 2017, Penn\u2019s Undergraduate Assembly and the Student Activities Council partnered to revise club recruitment<\/a> across the University. A survey from the UA at the time found that the club recruitment process is characterized by students as\u00a0competitive and discouraging.<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation<\/a> to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.<\/p>\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wharton implemented new guidelines about club recruitment for the 2025-26 academic year. Credit: Chenyao Liu As student groups…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,8432,50,1448,2830,1311,11027,1399,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,98715],"class_list":["post-209408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-beats","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-studentlife","tag-top","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wharton"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115166997733335543","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}