Enter the William Keeton House any Friday night after 9 p.m. and you’ll immediately be greeted by the cries and shouts of a heated debate. Angry accusations abound, such as the claim of Richard Craib ’11, as he asserts to the group around him, “I feel like I’m being framed!” Unphased by his cry, the students around him barely acknowledge his statement, instead turning their attention to Chris Gerig ’11, who commands the group to pay attention, saying, “Okay everyone — so Ani is dead and everyone go to sleep.”

When, despite Gerig’s command the debate continues, Ani Ramesh ’09 walks to the center of the group and quiets the cacophony, commanding that everyone listen to Gerig and that they, “Stop talking to dead people.”

Gangsta rules

How is it that in the front lobby of a Cornell dormitory such statements don’t turn even a single head? Residents of the William Keeton House have become accustomed to these colorful cries; in fact, ever since the Mafia Club began holding its weekly meetings in Keeton House, furor has become part of the Friday night routine.

Every Friday night, a group of 30 to 40 students gathers, forming a large circle of chairs in the lobby. After dealing out cards to each player to assign him or her a role, chaos ensues as students begin their playing. The Mafia Club is based on a game in which there are two opposing teams — the Mafia and the Villagers. Simply put, Ramesh said, “The goal of the Mafia is to kill the Villagers and the goal of the Villagers is to discover who is Mafia … Basically it’s a psychological game.” The details of the game are somewhat complex, and different groups follow different variations on a set of basic rules, though according to Ramesh, Cornell’s club is based on the rules and structure used by other collegiate Mafia Clubs.

Founded by club President Ramesh at the start of the Fall 2008 semester, the Mafia Club is one of Cornell’s newer clubs. Ramesh and three of his close friends discovered the Mafia Game over the summer and subsequently decided to introduce it to the Cornell community. Ramesh explained, “There were four of us who started playing mafia over last summer. .. we started to play a lot with some of the students who were here and a lot of us had fun so we decided to start the club.”

He is quick to add, “We’ve been operating out of the William Keeton House, and the Keeton House staff have been really supportive so we definitely owe a lot to them.”

However, Ramesh says that with more funding this semester, he hopes to be able to hold the club’s weekly meetings in a more visible venue to attract more members and regular players.

“Last semester our funding was limited to about $200 and we basically spent that money on getting equipment, which basically boils down to cards and record keeping. This semester we’re going [to ask] for a little more [funding] so we can do some recruiting and make the organization a little bigger.” With the potential increase in funding, Ramesh hopes to be able to, “ … move [the meeting place] to Willard Straight where we’ll be exposed to more people.” RLD