Have an interest in ducks, prison ball or breathing? There’s a campus group for you. There are 536 groups registered with the University and countless other unofficial groups that students can join. Ducks Unlimited, Prison Ball Club and the Art of Living Club are just a few this campus has to offer.

Ducks Unlimited

Membership: 8

Year Founded: 1995

Ducks Unlimited at the University is part of a national organization. Taylor Erickson, Herington junior and Ducks Unlimited president said the group wasn’t about just waterfowl; it is interested in preserving all wildlife.

“You have to have something to hunt and you have to raise money to produce habitats for the animals you hunt,” he said.

Erickson said getting the word out about Ducks Unlimited was difficult.

“Trying to market our group and get people more interested is the biggest challenge,” Erickson said. “Most are confused because they ask how we can be hunters and are about conserving wildlife.”

Erickson said the group had raised $2,500 by auctioning Ducks Unlimited merchandise to raise money, which was donated to Ducks Unlimited to save wildlife and conserve land.

“Being able to meet with people at KU that have similar interests is one thing,” Erickson said. “But if it’s going towards a good cause, that’s great, too.”

Erickson said Ducks Unlimited wasn’t yet a University-sponsored organization because groups must have support from a faculty member. He said the group hadn’t made that step yet.

Stephanie McCaulley, Victorville, Calif., senior, is the only female member of Ducks Unlimited.

Both McCaulley and Erickson have hunting backgrounds and said they had grown up with the sport. McCaulley’s family hunts both duck and large game. She said it was something she enjoyed, too.

McCaulley said after hunting expeditions her family would always use every part of the animal. She said her mother made jewelry out of the feathers of ducks.

Erickson said the group planned to take hunting expeditions together.

He said the group would go out during the months of October through December for duck season and possibly February for goose season.

McCaulley said that for her, Ducks Unlimited was about conservation.

“It’s really a club that’s about the outdoors and nature — you don’t have to hunt,” she said. “It’s just about doing your part to conserve these wetlands so they can live on for many years.”

For more information, visit the “Ducks Unlimited at KU” Facebook group.

Prison Ball Club

Membership: 41

Year Founded: 2008

Brian Bracciano, Lawrence junior and co-president of Prison Ball Club, said that the new group to campus wasn’t just about having fun and playing ball, but that it had also been a tradition since middle school.

Prison Ball, Bracciano said, is a dodgeball-like sport that allows many people to join in the activity. He said the group had recruited more than 120 people to play before.

“It’s definitely a lot more strategic than dodgeball,” Bracciano said.

The game is played with the same types of balls and has two jails at opposing ends of the gym. When one person from a team is struck with a ball, they must go to the opposing team’s jail and a member from their team has to throw balls into the jail to get them out. When one member from a team throws the ball through the basketball goal, then the entire team is released from jail in a jailbreak.

Bracciano said he began a group at Free State High School and from there it had grown to forming a group on campus. He said Prison Ball Club was waiting to hear from Student Senate about funding for the group.

Alex Gordzica, Lawrence junior and co-president of the group, said Prison Ball Club was entertaining and fulfilling.

“It allows people to do something that they wouldn’t normally do,” he said. “Plus, I think kids our age have a lot of aggression and it helps get that out.”

Bracciano said the group can’t charge members an admission fee because it wouldn’t get funding from Student Senate and the Ambler Student Recreation Center charges $15 an hour to use its gym courts.

Bracciano said the group had high hopes and would hear from Student Senate about the funding decision on Dec. 3.

“We’re still using the same balls we bought back in high school,” he said.

For more information, go to www.ku.edu/organizations or visit the “Prisonble: A KU Chapter” Facebook group.

The Art of Living Club

Membership: 20

Year Founded: 2007

The Art of Living Club focuses on breathing and mind exercises.

Manas Bhatnagar, Bhobal, India, sophomore and president, said certain sessions are targeted for different things.

“The Body, Breath and Mind session is one that is meant to relax you,” Bhatnagar said. “It reaches the body and the mind.”

He said the ultimate goal for the group is just to have fun.

The group offers three different sessions and meets every Wednesday at Hashinger Hall.

Bhatnagar said he thought of the group as a way for individuals to handle their own share of stress and to uplift society. Certified breathing instructors teach the course and the group also brings in yoga instructors on occasion.

The club gets its name from the Art of Living Foundation, which is a national organization with courses in stress relief. According to the group’s description, there are no religious components to the sessions and are primarily simple techniques of meditation, yoga and breathing.

“The instructors for the course all have full-time jobs,” Bhatnagar said. “This is just volunteer work for them.”

For more information, go to www.ku.edu/organizations.

— — Edited by Becka Cremer