Terrace Club - Membership and Culture

Membership and Culture

Terrace Club is one of five clubs to use a nonselective lottery "sign-in" system to determine membership, as opposed to the selective bicker system of the other six clubs. Along with Campus, Colonial, and Cloister, Terrace switched from bicker to the sign-in system during the politically turbulent 1960s. Terrace was one of the first of the clubs to accept Jewish, African-American, and female members, and today is considered on campus to be the most "alternative," politically liberal eating club. Often, members are stereotyped according to this reputation, but the actual membership is very diverse in terms of background, sense of style, and academic interests. Since 2000, Terrace has been a popular choice for sophomores, filling all of its membership slots either during first round sign-in or by the end of the second round.

Terrace's motto has been "Food=Love" since the mid-eighties. The food is served cafeteria-style and is famous for being more "vegetarian friendly" than other clubs. Members of Terrace often refer to the club as "Terrace F. Club" or "TFC".

Terrace is often referred to by club members as "the mother," "mother Terrace," or "the womb," and members often refer to themselves as "Terrans."

Weekend events at Terrace often include concerts of indie-scene bands from a variety of genres, including rock, hip-hop, salsa, jazz, and electronica. Unlike the other eating clubs, Terrace rarely hires DJs for dancing because there are always several members who are DJs themselves. Indeed, it is not uncommon for Terrace to have more nights of live music in a given weekend than all of the other nine clubs put together. Many notable artists and groups, including Yo La Tengo, GWAR, Blues Traveler (Summer '87), Elliott Smith, Run DMC, Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Vampire Weekend, Frightened Rabbit, Girl Talk, GZA, Immortal Technique, Stereolab, and Tortoise have played at Terrace, some before they were nationally well-known. Terrace also hosts the Queer Radicals' annual Drag Ball in October or November.