Making an Immediate Impact on the Campus Community
The room buzzed with conversation — not about outlines or tomorrow’s contracts reading, but rather winter break plans, favorite restaurants and the chatter that followed a costly move in a game. Laughter mixed with the sound of captured pieces hitting the table. As law students momentarily traded legal arguments for chess strategy, they found something rare: a space to unwind, compete and make real connections beyond the classroom. When I founded the KU Law Chess Club, Knights & Bishops, I had no idea how many students would be eager to swap casebooks for chessboards, but that first meeting proved that strategy isn’t just for exam taking.
It began at an event in late October, where classmates exchanged stories about what they enjoyed doing in the spare moments they found between briefing torts cases and attending exam-taking strategy sessions. Amid the chatter, my fellow classmate, Tony Racy, began talking about chess.
“Is there a law school chess club?” I asked, fully expecting the answer to be yes — after all, legal strategy and chess seem like a perfect match.
“I don’t think so,” someone said as the group nodded.
“We should start one.”
As an out-of-state student, I was eager to find ways to create community on KU’s campus. Chess was the perfect activity to bring students, faculty and staff together, and provide a space in the law school where people could connect over something outside of the legal realm. Most of the extracurriculars I had already found myself contributing to — like Women in Law, the IP Society and Traffic Court — were great ways to get involved and make friends, but they all revolved around legal interests. Knights and Bishops’ goal was to create a space for legal minds to connect over a non-legal activity.
What initially seemed like a simple idea — starting a club — turned out to be more complicated than we expected but surprisingly doable for first-year students. Our Assistant Director of Academic and Student Affairs Erin Kelley-Garrison typically would have been our first contact, but since she was out of town, we took our idea directly to the Associate Director of Academic and Student Affairs Leah Terranova. She helped us create a plan and provided us with all the information we needed to get the club off the ground. Once we began the process, we met with EKG to make sure we completed all the required steps.
The steps to create a student organization:
1. Meet with the Assistant Director of Academic and Student Affairs to go over the steps required.
2. Get together a team of board members. Chess Club’s included a president, vice president, treasurer and a faculty advisor!
3. Read the Student Organization Handbook.
4. Write a constitution (this step was the most fun for us as law students).
5. Register the Student Organization with (1) the Student Affairs Office and (2) the University through Rock Chalk Central. These two steps ensure you’re able to book a room in Green Hall, or other buildings on campus, to meet in.
6. Complete Student Organization Officer Training via Canvas.
7. Attend the Welcome Back Meeting at the beginning of the academic year.
8. Begin planning a community service project to complete as a group.
9. Plan your first meeting!
Starting a club as a 1L is more than just an opportunity to dive into a new extracurricular — it’s a chance to form lasting connections, practice leading a team and build something that enriches the law school experience for others. From the very start, the process was made smoother by the incredible support I received from everyone around me. Our faculty advisor, Professor Peters, even generously provided food and beverages for our launch party, reinforcing how deeply our community believes in the importance of supporting one another.
The success of our first meeting exceeded all expectations. We welcomed a large group of students who were eager to make connections and embrace the chessboard as a place for friendship. Chess club has served as a reminder that sometimes, the best way to find a community isn’t through another academic achievement, but through a shared interest that allows everyone to connect as people, not just students.
– Ava Mumgaard is a 1L KU Law Student Ambassador from Omaha, Nebraska