More than 100 members of BYU’s social clubs were prepped, prettied and paired off for a night of fine dining and dancing one magical night in the ’80s. These students entered The Salt Palace Arena in Salt Lake for a formal dance.
Unbeknownst to the students, there was no dance that night.
Dressed in suits and evening gowns, students spent that glorious evening as spectators at a professional wrestling slugfest.
In 1908, the first social organization was formed on campus at BYU. According to the book “Brigham Young University: A House of Faith,” these social clubs were modeled after the fraternities and sororities on other college campuses and the system thrived in Provo for more than 80 years. The clubs provided student life with structure and entertainment with formal toasts, initiations, service activities, dances, date lineups, weekend retreats and parties. Although the clubs promoted an element of exclusivity and borderline inappropriate behavior at times, the social clubs of the ’70s and ’80s provided students with prime opportunities for the parents of many current BYU students to meet and fall in love. Some of the club alums think that resurrecting some of the club atmosphere could help cure what some call a lackluster Provo social scene.
Tom Driggs, a former BYU graduate from the class of ’87 was one of the founding fathers of a popular social club for men in the ’80s called the “Collegiate Development Union,” also referred to as “CDU” or “Chicks Dig Us.” As one of the original charter members of CDU, Driggs helped organize many of the club’s social events, including the Salt Palace slugfest.
Driggs, along with several other former CDU members helped organize a reunion for the predominant social clubs of the ’80s. The reunion was the largest gathering of BYU alumni on record and many of the former club members brought their kids to witness the extensive social network that once existed in Provo.
“I think Provo is lacking in the dating category,” Driggs said. “A lot of the former members of CDU now have kids at BYU and the resounding echo from the young men and women at our reunion was, ‘We’ve got to start these clubs again. How great would it be to have a social network like our parents had at BYU?’ I feel like the kids at BYU are thirsty for something like our social clubs.”
Driggs, along with other former club members, believes the club system presently in place at BYU does not accurately imitate the social club life of the past.
According to Adrian Klemme, BYU’s official club coordinator, the current clubs at BYU still provide students with entertaining activities and events on campus. Klemme said with the support of BYU, more than 200 clubs are active on campus with some degree of social involvement.
“There are BYUSA clubs and academic clubs on campus,” Klemme said. “The exact purpose for why the BYUSA clubs exist is to allow a venue and an opportunity for students to meet together and have social learning opportunities in a unique and specialized environment. The academic clubs have that purpose but are also very closely tied to an academic purpose which may be a national honor society or a club specific to their major.”
Klemme and Carri Jenkins, University spokeswoman, said they believe the club system on campus is thriving and active. However, many students have negative perceptions of BYUSA activities held on campus.
Nick Rose, a recent finance graduate from Kaysville, believes the clubs on campus and church activities prevalent in Provo are not productive social engagements.
“I’ve been to countless BYUSA activities on campus and ward activities off campus,” Rose said. “The problem is that none of the people that I want to associate with, want to attend activities on campus that we have to pay for. Wards are great, but I’m not meeting new people. I meet the girls that I’m interested in dating within the first three months at church and then I’m stuck with my same old group of friends.”
Melanie Matlock, BYU graduate from the class of ’89 and former social vice president of the Kappa Kappa Gamma club, believes her daughter faces dating struggles because of Provo’s stagnant social scene.
“The clubs of the ’70s and ’80s were so active and gave us kids opportunities to go on dates and meet new people,” Matlock said. “Every weekend there was a social event, dance, service activity or fireside and we always had excuses to go on dates and meet new boys. I know my daughter doesn’t have a social structure at BYU that makes dating as easy as it once was. I got asked out by my husband on a date for a club event and two years later we got married. We’re a club marriage. When we got married, 15 other couples from our clubs got married that same summer.”
The clubs typically consisted of anywhere between 60-80 students and the frequent events facilitated the process of meeting potential marriage partners.
Tamara Blum pledged in ’81 for the Sportswomen Club and met her future husband at an opening social party.
“I remember ward activities, but the best way to meet people during my time ate BYU was through the social club events,” Blum said. “These activities promoted flirting and real conversations. It was a great opportunity to meet and do fun things with huge groups of new dating candidates. My best friend and I met our future husbands at club parties.”
Every student at BYU is well-aware of the Church’s role in helping BYU students get married at a young age, but many question the university’s social programs. The Church has officially distanced itself from fraternity- and sorority-like structures. For example, last summer the church disbanded the LDS-sponsored Sigma Gamma Chi fraternity and Lambda Delta Sigma sorority at institutes across the country. The move was based on moving stewardship of young adults to spiritual leaders.
To the dismay of many BYU alumni, the social clubs that once were a staple of student life in Provo became extinct in the early ’90s. After Klemme researched the former social clubs, he determined the clubs disappeared 20 years ago because students lost interest.
Driggs, an ardent advocate of clubs throughout the decade of the ’80s, said he believes the clubs eventually lost momentum after school administration shortened the leash on the clubs’ liberties. A few clubs attempted to disassociate themselves with BYU and moved “off-campus” but funding and advertising proved detrimental to the clubs without the university’s support.
“There were some people at the reunion who said, ‘We’ve got to start this up again. We’ve got to help these kids out. We’ve got to fund this,’” Driggs said. “And that would be great but this is something that the students need to do because if they don’t do it themselves, they won’t own it. People from my generation look at Facebook and just don’t get it. Listen, if you think social networking and online dating are unproductive, well here’s a way to make it real and not virtual. The clubs back then were a three-dimensional Facebook — a way to create real bonds with people.”
