-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
Student club recognition made simple
Archive
Comments
Story
To become a recognized student organization, first arrange a meeting with Mike Esposito, Student Organization Program coordinator. Call 426-1223 to establish an appointment.
To be eligible for consideration, the prospective group must have at least one student member present in the meeting.
“The group can have an off campus member or faculty advisor, but at least one BSU student must attend this first meeting,” Esposito said.
The students then complete a temporary recognition card. This card gives simple information like contact info from a couple student leaders and the advisor and also details the purpose of the organization.
“During this time of temporary status, we ask students try to get everything together in two months,” he said. “The temporary time period allows students privileges in order to gain membership.”
The first privilege from being deemed a temporary club involves access to rooms in the Student Union. Groups can reserve these rooms up to three times for a maximum of a two-month period. The rooms allow students a formal meeting place to gather interest and membership for the infant club.
He explained temporary organizations cannot have any type of event, groups can only hold meetings to evaluate membership and interest.
Other services available include 100 free photocopies made at one time from Copy Central. Students with temporary recognition of organization can also have use of the poster room, or marketing booths in the SUB.
Students with temporary privileges have access to table tents and banner wire space when space is available, and they can participate in student organization fairs.
However, “students may not fundraise except to collect dues,” Esposito said.
The next step in obtaining recognition of a working organization is to develop a constitution.
“I would go over all requirements BSU demands of all student organizations,” Esposito said.
“Students need to have 13 main stipulations and can have more, just so long as the constitution does not conflict with University requirements.”
Students need to state the name and purpose of the organization, the affiliation with BSU, and any other national organization. If the group affiliates with another organization, the constitution needs to be established so that no conflicts are occurring betwixt policy requirements.
Students need to outline a non-discrimination policy as well.
According to stipulations set by BSU, the organization’s president must be a full fee paying student with eight or more credit hours. The remaining members must be fee-paying students with a minimum of three credit hours.
Students are allowed to have community members involved with the organization if they desire, but at least 51 percent membership of the organization must be fee-paying students.
Explaining the grounds for removing an officer, specifics of meetings, election processes, and lists of officers are also required for approval of the organization’s constitution.
“We outline suggestions, but groups can be creative and we welcome them to do so,” Esposito said.
If the organization is eligible for ASBSU funding, the advisor must help with budgeting, and the duties of the advisor should be explained in the constitution.
From there, Student Organizations can on its own create constitution, or members of student governments can sit down with the group to help construct the constitution.
New organizations must submit three copies of the constitution to Esposito.
“I review the constitution, if it meets the specified criteria, I will then pass it on to the student government judicial branch,” he said.
If criteria are not met, Esposito will make corrections on the copy and sends the rough draft back to the organization for revisal.
“We try not to make too complicated try to help get through as much as possible,” he said.
He explained some groups get into making their constitution, for other groups it is another hoop to jump through.
“For student organizations, it is simply a formality,” he said. “I advise students to follow example that Student Activities sets. Often that is all student organizations need.”
If students attempt to construct a student organization, and fails, Esposito said, “students should not beat themselves up if they don’t end up finding members, that’s okay. They don’t need to feel like they have succeed in creating an organization, at least students gave it a shot and that’s what the temporary organization period is for.”
Laura Wylde