Confidential Ivy Bicker Comments and Scores Found Online

Hundreds of confidential comments and scores written by Ivy Club members during the February 2017 bicker process were publicly available online until Saturday night.The comments were supposed to remain private, but appear to have been accidentally made public on the website GitHub.“We didn’t expect them to have a public audience,” a former Ivy member who wrote some of the cards said. She added that making the comments public would increase the amount of “speculation and gossip” that accompanies bicker.Each “card” includes a summary of and a score for a conversation that a member had with a bickeree. Students looking to join the club can have up to 10 of these conversations, each of which is graded on a scale from one to five. “I couldn't prod a single drop of genuine personality out of him that didn't associate with academia,” a comment said. “Not a Renaissance man, but sadly a one-trick pony.”The bickeree received a one.The cards were taken down after the Press Club asked Ivy Club for comment about them."The Ivy Club takes very seriously its commitment to the confidentiality of its admissions process and the privacy of its members and guests," the Ivy Club graduate board wrote in a statement. "To the extent that any private information has become available, we deeply regret our failure. We have taken steps to ensure this can never happen again."“The confidentiality of discussions and bicker experiences encourages openness and honesty among the club’s existing members,” an officer at another bicker club said. “If it were made public, the membership would not feel comfortable honestly discussing bickerees.”Questions range from discussing the candidates’ interests to asking the candidates to scream the name of the hottest Ivy member from the top of the staircase. A few of the comments are reprinted below:

• “Seemed like he was just trying to paint himself as a stereotypical member: well-off, fratty, international...He randomly asserted why he'd fit in(he loves the seating policy duh!). Interview seemed fake/rehearsed.” (Score: 1)
• “She was interesting but a bit awkward and difficult to talk to. I don't think she would be interested in going out at all, nor would I particularly enjoy hanging with her at meals.” (Score: 2)
• “I did a double bicker and made her enact what she would do if she were to aggressively hit on a guy on the TI dance floor, and she gave a stellar performance.” (Score: 5)
• “Things were going well so I asked her on a date to the CJL for Valentine’s Day...... she said no. Love that.” (Score: 5)
• “If he were a foot taller, I’d seriously consider marrying this guy.” (Score: 5)

The university and the eating clubs have attempted to make the bicker process less exclusive over the past few decades, with mixed success. Many of the clubs have made their processes fairer and more transparent, but criticisms persist.“Ivy has a reputation for being this rich, exclusive club,” said Adam Beasley ‘20, who participated in the first two days of Ivy bicker last year before deciding to withdraw his application. “I had some great conversations, but for the most part, others seemed to fulfill those stereotypes.”This year, the process has been rebranded as Street Week. Events at sign-in clubs have been advertised more prominently, and students who bicker are required to select a sign-in club as a backup so that everyone who wants to join an eating club will have the opportunity to do so.But not all students are convinced that the bicker process has become fairer.“The new ‘reforms’ seem to me like a way to avoid the difficult task of making real progress in making campus a better place for everyone,” one anonymous poster wrote on the Tiger Confessions Facebook page.Whether Street Week successfully promotes inclusivity on the Street remains to be seen. The cards from 2017 show that Ivy members were aware of the social atmosphere that bicker creates.“I must say at times she did seem a little vapid and maybe even a little social – climbey,” wrote one Ivy member in a bicker card, before concluding, “But maybe that was just the social setting of bicker.” (Score: 4)[Ethan Sterenfeld ‘20 contributed reporting.]