The Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD) continued to organize CaMD club schedules based on “umbrellas” this year, where thematically similar clubs will share meeting times. The schedule aims to reduce scheduling conflicts, encourage broader club participation, and give students more flexibility to explore different affinities and interests, according to Aquita Winslow, Dean of CaMD.
Although the term “umbrellas” has existed in the past, Ashiq Kibria ’26, Co-President of Asian Society and a board member of Classism at Phillips Academy (CAPA), explained that umbrellas are playing a more significant role in structuring meeting schedules this year.
“CaMD has used the umbrella term before, but this year is a little bit different in terms of booking out CaMD as a space. Now, certain groups get priority on certain days. Before it used to be that clubs [related to Asian identities] could just schedule any time but now it’s preferred that they go on Sundays. The term umbrella has been used before to group CaMD, but now it’s more related to scheduling,” said Kibria.
Winslow emphasized that CaMD groups clubs are based on interest, not affinity. She added that umbrella categories make it easier for students and faculty to operate under a busy schedule.
“The reason we’ve done this is so that students who have an interest in a certain area can participate in all of these activities on the same day of the week instead of having all of their interest on different days of the week, which can sometimes [make it] hard for students to participate,” wrote Winslow in an email to The Phillipian.
Micah Nerone, Administrative Assistant for CaMD noted that scheduling meeting times by umbrella was not a new arrangement. He added that there are no changes to the way clubs are run.
“The clubs were already meeting at certain times throughout the week, but we made it easier for students to be able to go to all of their clubs that they wanted to go to,” said Nerone. “All clubs that [have] similar ideas, but different affinities or purposes for their clubs contain a lot of the same students, so we had them organize what days and what time those clubs met.”
Kibria expressed satisfaction with the schedule. He highlighted how it allows students to better manage their time for club meetings.
“I know a lot of people struggled with attending certain club commitments because they were undecided about multiple clubs. But now, [the system] separates CaMD clubs into certain categories which a student is able to plan for. It also doesn’t entirely limit the clubs because the clubs are still able to meet during any time, but the clubs under the umbrella [for that time slot] get priority,” said Kibria.
Similarly, Philip Molina ’28, a board member of Alianza Latina, stated that the system could strengthen participation and consistency across clubs. He noted that an organized schedule would make CaMD more welcoming to students interested in exploring multiple clubs.
“[The schedule] will be easier for consistency, but [will] also [let clubs] reach more people in our community and encourage people to join,” said Molina. “For Alianza Latina, we need to make sure that we just keep booking CaMD every Tuesday. Not too many changes will be happening. This shouldn’t be affecting us greatly. Hopefully it encourages more people to show up and have a good time.”
Despite potential advantages such as increased convenience and student engagement, Sophia Fang ’28, board member of the Andover Chinese Students Association (ACSA), expressed the limitations of the new schedule.
“This is a good idea [that] also can be improved. When planning events, clubs often choose certain days based on what the event is like. For example, some clubs wouldn’t want to host a banquet on a Sunday because people are more likely to come on a Friday. [The schedule is] more convenient for the people who work at CaMD, but it can also be inconvenient for board members if they really want to use that space on a certain day and they really can’t,” said Fang.
