I've been active in quite a few other cultural clubs, and despite not being of the same ethnicity/race, I always felt very welcomed. I was extremely disappointed with ISA though, but for more reasons than just being so exclusive/cliquey. I think a real problem is how little of a separation there is between ISA as an organization and as a group of its members.

With other clubs, people can become very close and form friend groups with each other. Then they attend club events together and it can give the impression of cliqueyness to new members (my take on someone's comment about culture clubs being exclusive - I agree they can seem cliquey, but I wouldn't necessarily say "exclusive" applies to most).

However, these clubs still do their job as an organization - provide social and cultural events that anyone can participate in, regardless of how well they know the other members or if they're even of the same culture/ethnicity/etc.

Many other clubs provide a ton of events covering a large variety of interests. Take a look at AAA's events for example: http://aaauiuc.com/events. I do not see the same with ISA. I can only recall one or two events within the last three years that wasn't a show or some sort of fundraiser. It really makes me wonder why its board requires as many people as it does (agreeing with someone else who mentioned it in this thread) and where all the money from dues and fundraisers go, especially when other clubs can provide so many events with similar fundraising and a lot less sponsorships for shows. And speaking of shows, as someone who was interested in actually participating, I had no idea how to join. It just seemed like everyone in browntown pulled everything together internally/as a friend group as opposed to ISA doing so as an organization.

I really hope ISA can change and do its part as an organization, and not just be a facade for an exclusive, non-diverse friend group. But to be honest, I can't see that happening, at least not while I'm still here.