Togas and pillars might come to mind when thinking of Stoic philosophy, but the University of Massachusetts Stoic Student Association (SSA) has built a community of modern adherers on campus who meet every week to discuss the Stoic perspective in the context of their own lives.
According to Nathan Woolcock, a junior math major and president of the club, “Stoicism is a branch of philosophy that originated about 2,500 years ago … Different from a lot of other philosophies, Stoicism was created just for the purpose of being utilized, for the goal of living a better life.”
The weekly meetings are discussion-oriented and center around a topic chosen by a rotating club member. The leader of the week prepares ideas, quotes and questions to inspire active dialogue among the attendees. Everyone must participate, which, according to Ryan Tavolilla, a senior computer science and math major who serves as treasurer, helps “open [the] mind to different ways of thinking.”
Karthik Shankar, a UMass alum, created the club out of a passion for the philosophy, and the origin story is itself a demonstration of Stoic application.
“During sophomore year, [Shankar] goes up to me and my friend … and he’s like, ‘Guys, I think I’m going to start a Stoic club’… I kind of brushed it off … I think the first meeting I happened to be busy … and my friend Jake also happened to be busy, and I don’t think anybody showed up to the first meeting,” Tavolilla said.
Despite the early setbacks, Shankar continued to run the club. As the weeks went on, more people continued to show up.
“From his perspective – so what if nobody showed up? [He] still [had] the goal of doing this,” Tavolilla said.
Control is a major focus in Stoicism, as well as virtue, which, according to Woolcock, divides Stoics into the pillars of courage, wisdom, temperance and justice. While these themes are the bedrock of the philosophy, the club’s members find the interpretation of these themes to vary across perspectives.
“You can hear some quote that some guy said 2,000 years ago, and one person will have this thought pop into their head, and three other people will have completely different thoughts come into their head, and you get some pretty interesting discussions from that,” Woolcock said.
Economics major Rhoda Sarpong, who is a transfer to UMass and a more recent member of the club, appreciates the unifying nature of the SSA. “This is a place where you can find community with other people that you think are not like you – but they’re really just like you, too,” Sarpong said.
On Campus Pulse, the Stoic Student Association is currently categorized as a “religious and spiritual council.” Its leadership says that this isn’t a great description of the club, explaining that as there is no real way to classify the club the SSA has been clunkily grouped in with more explicitly religious organizations.
But Woolcock argued that the categorization is not entirely ill-fitting: “Even though Stoicism isn’t a religion, even though that [label] doesn’t perfectly encapsulate the club, I think it’s relatively accurate … There’s tons of overlap.”
Members of the SSA belong to various faiths, including a lack of faith, which Tavolilla thinks is a benefit. “No matter what your beliefs [are], I feel like everybody can draw something from the topics that we talk about. I find it really powerful … It is interesting to see people who will come at it from a religious standpoint because it is all about getting different perspectives. I feel like [that’s] the name of the game in this club,” Tavolilla said.
The ideas at the center of the association are ancient, but its leaders don’t think this makes them obsolete. Woolcock explained the wisdom from Stoics is still relevant, despite it being 2,000 years later.
“The things I was doing in my daily life were super relevant to the stuff that I was talking about during the meetings … I’ve felt those pieces applying to my life, and I’ve seen better things come of it,” Tavolilla said.
Emily Albert can be reached at [email protected].
