Correction appended
AU’s wannabe wizards and witches disappointed that Hogwarts was not on the Common App will be glad to hear about the newest concoction coming out of Student Activities.
AU’s new “Harry Potter” fan club, Dumbledore’s Army, received confirmation March 1 to become an official club on campus.
A few freshmen in Hughes Hall came up with the idea for the club, according to AUDA president and Slytherin Prefect Pooja Patel. There are close to 250 students on the roster, Patel said in an interview.
But student enthusiasm and paperwork were not the only ingredients in the potion needed to achieve official status. The club also needed a wizardly adviser to mix it all together: School of Communication Dean Jeffrey Rutenbeck.
“Many of today’s college students have grown up living with (and living through) the cultural phenomenon of ‘Harry Potter,’” Rutenbeck said in an email. “Dumbledore’s Army provides AU devotees with an opportunity to share their passion for all things ‘Harry Potter’ and, at the same time, engage in meaningful community service.”
Rutenbeck said he has an “Elder Wand” in his office, and if he was a character from the books, he thinks he would be Neville Longbottom, a friend of Harry’s.
The dean’s passion for “Harry Potter” was born out of reading the series to his eldest daughter, he told Patel at a AUDA meeting he attended.
The group will hold two meetings each month. The first meeting involves the planning and discussion for that month’s fundraiser or event. At the end of the meeting, members can win prizes in trivia competitions.
The second event could be a fundraiser, competition between the Hogwarts houses or a movie viewing. Last month, wizards-in-training won handcrafted wands.
AUDA sorted students into the four different houses of Hogwarts using a sorting hat from the “Harry Potter” books. Sorting members into Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw will organize clubs members and create lively competition between houses during club events and activities, Patel said.
Being sorted was a little disconcerting in front of a crowd gathered near the Quad, said Jake Esenther, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of AUDA.
“[I] can’t imagine how the first years felt in the movies,” he said.
In addition to being an outlet for students to revisit the beloved series, AUDA will fundraise for the Harry Potter Alliance, Patel said.
The HPA is “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling-endorsed 501(c)3 nonprofit that works with nongovernmental organizations to alert the world to the dangers of global warming, poverty and genocide, according to the Harry Potter Alliance’s website.
The club has plans to host a feast for Thanksgiving or Halloween and a Yule Ball to raise money for the HPA, as well as to bring Quidditch to the Quad sometime next year.
“We have crazy ideas we definitely want to do,” Patel said.
Correction: This article previously misspelled Patel's first name.
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