The next academic year, still in 1899, sixteen non-fraternity men, led by Frederick Clark, Thomas Travis, and Herbert Ward, formally established the Wesleyan Commons Club. The University also organized the Commons Club as a boarding club, beginning with thirty-eight members, setting the price of board at $2.25 a week. The next fall, the membership increased to seventy and the college enlarged the building in which they were dining to provide meeting rooms for the group. Because of the financial aid provided, the University felt free to make a condition that all undergraduate members of the college, not belonging to fraternities, should be offered an election to the group regardless of race, color or creed.