Student organizations don’t foster a community. They divide the student base through institutionalization.

While student organizations can bring a sense of community to students, oftentimes this creates a problem for students with social anxiety to feel that they can fit in. When there are a lot of different student cliques, it can become overwhelming to attempt to fit in with the rest of the crowd.

Many student organizations also require funding in some part from students, or at least, investment from students to fully participate in their group, which becomes a logistic that may leave those who join the organizations left out.

Some student organizations promote themselves as good job experience for the real world. But resources to help students succeed in life should be available to students from the outside. Additionally, student organizations require a time investment to reach these opportunities.

This allows for the attitude of earning one’s way to an advantageous position in society when it all comes down to knowing the right person. Thus, the problem of alienation goes beyond how many people someone can know around campus. Shouldn’t success be valued on the effort someone makes, and not on the luck of knowing the name of a different person of repute?

If you want to assist the community, seek ways to increase the benefit toward those outside of your set social circle to see how many people the campus community really has that can benefit from your resources — both formal and informal.