Margaux Smith, who graduated last year from the College of Arts and Letters, has seen wild successes and crushing unpopularity from the clubs she created as a student. She's behind MSU's celebrated Squirrel Spotting Club, its unpopular rival Anti Squirrel Feeding Club, the Watch Grass Grow Club, the short-lived Humanities Social Network and the MSU Ballet Club.

Smith says the reasons for her rampant club-making are two-fold: A joke between friends that was kept alive for her four years on campus, and the fact that creating a student organization at MSU is so easy.

"You just need four people and a constitution and you're done," Smith said.

The most popular of her creations, the Squirrel Spotting Club, got its start after Smith heard rumors about the existence of such a club (the Eastern Grey and Fox Squirrels that populate MSU's campus have acquired a cult-like following amongst students, who occasionally feed them). Those rumors were buoyed by additional talk of club meant to spot members of the Squirrel Spotting Club.

Neither club actually existed, so Smith took it upon herself to start the Squirrel Spotting Club in the spring of 2023. She and Kinsey Skjold, Smith’s roommate at the time who graduated last year with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical laboratory science, began to feed squirrels by Beaumont Tower. 

The club started as a joke, but gained momentum at that next fall’s Sparticipation, where many students showed interest in becoming members.

One such student is the current president of the Squirrel Spotting Club, Margaret Babiarz.

Though it was her first week on campus, Babiarz quickly became involved in the growing group.

“I love Squirrel Club because we are right at the intersection of campus community or social outreach and wildlife conservation,” Babiarz said.

Though the rumored Squirrel Spotters Spotting Club never came about, Smith did create an Instagram page for the Anti-Squirrel Feeding Club, the Squirrel Spotting Club’s fictitious rival which adamantly hates squirrels and anyone who feeds them. 

Smith made another satirical account for the Watch Grass Grow Club, whose page that contains fake merchandise, a meeting set for Sept. 31, and plenty of pictures of the grass on campus.

Smith got her start during her freshman year after sustaining a broken foot, which temporarily kept her from her lifelong passion for ballet. In creating the Ballet Club Smith hoped to still be a part of that world despite being unable to dance for the moment.

Not many seasoned dancers joined the club when it was first established, so Smith, who had been planning to teach advanced classes, resolved to teach Pilates and yoga classes that would cater to a wide range of people.  

Over time, the Ballet Club has grown into a much larger organization that has expanded to teaching contemporary and jazz dance, as well as putting on annual ballet productions and organizing campus galas. 

Annabelle Wilken, the current president of the Ballet Club credits Smith's vision for fostering a robust community.

“I think having that drive and vision did wonders in terms of really creating the community and giving us the motivation to do everything that we do," Wilken said.

The social connections that sprouted from the Ballet Club and other organizations led Smith to experiment with creating community elsewhere.

While working as the event coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Humanities and Humanities Pre-law programs, Smith created a club for students in the majors to meet. While the club was short-lived, the club had memorable meetings like an Air Bud watch party during March Madness. 

“It was a joke, I didn’t mean for it to be a five-club situation, but I kind of roped myself into it,” Smith admitted.