By JAZMIN GOMEZ

As another academic year begins, past drama and gossip resurfaces as the first-years try to acclimate to college life and understand the inner workings of the community. Concerning the annual involvement fair aimed to recruit incoming first-year students, whisperings about club reputations around campus increased as the new students tried to decide which organizations they should join or cautiously avoid.

FemCo presented as an exciting opportunity for freedom of expression and thought. Still, their potential quickly faded when two anonymous informants voiced concerns over the club’s leadership turnover failure and concerning values that seemingly supported a White and terf feminist culture. When three other upperclassmen corroborated Beloit students’ widely held belief regarding FemCo as performative, their perspective cast doubt on their stories’ validity, especially since most of these informants never witnessed the club first-hand. (The only informant who participated in FemCo as an active member declined an interview.) 

Questioning the rumors circulating that villainize FemCo, one needs to examine how these accusations received basis and evaluate their level of truthfulness. In interviews with three current FemCo executives and one past member, the general conclusion of the rumors’ source stems from the club’s inaction to promote their inclusivity. Confusion about the club’s mission fueled and exacerbated its decreasing reputation.

Paige Lancaster’26, one of the newest recruits, describes how the past idleness of the club led to their support, saying, “I want to get FemCo to be a more activist group like we say we are. No one cares enough, and that’s the problem.” When asked about the truthfulness of the rumors stemming from last year’s member, Lancaster and Ellie Debbert’26 admitted a lack of knowledge before joining FemCo, saying, “Nobody talks about it.” Debbert continued, saying, “It’s not like they’re trying to hide it. I think they don’t want to bring up the past because it was too much to handle.” Whether unwilling or passive, FemCo’s inability to disprove the rumors and communicate creates confusion about their feminist values.

Due to the recent leadership turnover, six of the nine FemCo executives are new club members, while three joined last year. Olivia Sears’25, the most senior member of FemCo and titled President on paper, explains possible reasons for last year’s inactivity, saying, “We knew nothing. We were all new to the club. We haven’t participated ever, so that’s when it started going downhill.” In the fall semester of 2022, Femco consisted of three entirely new members possessing no information about how to run the club since prior seasoned members “didn’t give us any information. We were all trying to figure things out– just get the events done and stay open,” Sears says. Last year, FemCo hosted four events, including the involvement fair. Even the past advisor, Jules Schmidt, seemed to know “what we knew, and that was basically nothing.” Perhaps the leadership turnover within FemCo led to an inevitable decline in membership and activity. 

“We kind of got burned out pretty fast because we weren’t receiving any support. We got very discouraged,” Shroom Katz, a past member of FemCo, adds. A prominent name in the accusations against FemCo, Katz participated in the club for only last year’s fall semester. “My initial role, and why people associate [FemCo] with me, was to get people excited about it and participate,” Katz suggests, despite engaging with the club briefly. Personally disbelieving in the rumors and unable to understand how such remarks existed, Katz compares Beloit’s small campus to a “bad game of telephone,” relating the issue of gossip as an issue to the close quarters of students. Since the informants who acted as the main contributors to these rumors declined an interview at this time, these accusations remain purely hearsay. They should not accurately define or represent FemCo.

Despite the baseless accusations, the inactivity of the club remains very real. All current members of FemCo possess goals to revamp the club and curate a safe space. Frances Donis’24 hopes to make FemCo more inclusive since “historically, since my freshman year, it’s been a very White-based group. I made it my thing to be more active and take up a role. Actions talk.” Coboorating Donis’s remarks, Sandhya Pise’26, says, “I still feel like we’re not excluded, but not included either,” insinuating that FemCo needs to create a more welcoming community for non-white students. “I fully acknowledge as a white genderqueer person, no wonder [FemCo] felt as a more inclusive space for me,” Lancaster says, aiming to bring more voices into the club.

Hosting open meetings every Monday at 7 p.m., students can sit in and contribute to the planning process with the FemCo executive board. Currently, the members plan to pack and distribute period kits for the campus bathrooms, host an event with the Spanish Club before fall break, and digitize some of the feminist literature available in the house on an easily accessible website. Debbert encompasses the spirit of the members by saying, “Bottom line, we want to be more active.”

Featured Image: FemCo