The Student Activities Office (SAO) is accepting proposals from students for new clubs after a year-long pause in applications due to inactive clubs, Mark Maranto, Assistant Principal of Student Activities, said.

The SAO uses Student Council (StuCo) to decide which proposals move forward, Maranto said. Prospective clubs fill out a form and prepare a presentation for StuCo, senior Iris Do, Executive Vice President of the Student Body, explained.

“[South has] over 100 clubs, so [we] have to be really selective,” Do said. “We make them answer questions like why this club belongs at South [and] how it differs from other clubs.”

During the 2020-2021 school year, interest in creating new clubs exploded, and 129 new clubs were created, straining financial and human resources, Maranto said.

“[The pandemic] was an isolating time [where] students [were not doing] activities that they’d be doing otherwise, so we had club [size] growth,” Maranto said.

In order to create a club, students have to provide a minimum of 20 names of interested students, create a mission statement, confirm a sponsor, and share details about the club’s goals, according to South’s website. Government Club was a prospective group that got turned down by StuCo and had a goal to inform students about current events in U.S. politics, junior Natalia Atto, potential Government Club board member, said.

As of this semester, South has 120 clubs and 97 percent of its students are involved in at least one extracurricular activity, Maranto said. Clubs are low commitment which makes them easy to join, and there are so many options, like service clubs, affinity groups, and interest clubs, Maranto said.

“Lots of times, [former] students talk about clubs [as] the things that they remember most about [South],” Maranto said. “[It is] a way for a community of people to bond together around common interests, [and] as a way for kids to make friends.”