Clubs offer students the ability to enjoy their time on campus, by participating in events that are formed around their interests alongside like-minded individuals.

For instance, students that are interested in business might join the Business Club on campus to gain the abilities and experience needed for their major.

In total there are 15 clubs at Contra Costa College that focus on various interests ranging from video games to computational math to engineering, among others.

To put the significance of that number in perspective, the vice president of club affairs for the ASU, Safi Ward-Davis said that over the last summer break the college had lost five or six clubs.

“Over the semester break this year we lost a number of clubs due to the fact that the officers in charge of those clubs graduated or transferred without first securing a future for their club,” Ward-Davis said.

The number of clubs at the end of the spring 2014 semester dwindled from 13 to 8.

She said while this number may show a decrease in student-club interest on campus, by the time this semester had begun, that number had already grown from 8 to 15.

“The clubs that we do have now are successful,” Ward-Davis said. “(The clubs) held events and got the word out to the student body about recruitment. We’re expecting almost all of those clubs to return next semester. Also, we’re seeing that the officers in charge of those clubs are not really near graduating,” she said.

As the semester nears its end, Ward-Davis and the Inter-Club Council have been discussing how to start next semester off on the right foot, she said.

“Over the last few meeting we’ve had, we have just been gearing up for next semester and setting up events like Club Rush and others to benefit students,” she said. “At this current moment we’re just in the process of pinpointing a time and date for everything.”

For those interested in the process of starting a new club, instructions on how to do so are on the college website, she said.

“It is really all about getting in the correct paperwork at the right time and meeting the designated criteria,” she said. “For instance, every club needs to have 5 active members and pick a staff or faculty member to act as an adviser, which is a large amount of the work.”

Current EOPS president and active school ambassador Gerald Macadangdang has expressed interest in starting a number of clubs up on campus.

In addition to possibly starting up the first Gay-Straight Alliance the college would have seen in over two decades, Macadangdang plans on starting a Filipino-American Student Union on campus.

“Clubs like this bring awareness. If there are people that are interested then it is something that would benefit everyone,” Macadangdang said.

He is in the process of starting a Filipino-American Student Union and has the necessary paperwork to start the club, but has yet to turn them in.

“It may be a thing for the first weeks of next semester,” he said.

Schools from all over the Bay Area offer clubs and most understand the importance of building such student groups.

Vice President of Programs at Berkeley City College Rudrani Ghosh said, “Clubs foster creativity and engage students on a level that they want. The clubs we have on campus promote education and awareness. We definitely haven’t had any detrimental effects come up because of clubs.”