Beginning last month, about 50 student organizations found themselves unable to reap the benefits of being a Students’ Association organization.
On Sept. 29, the Students’ Association put nearly 50 groups on notice for failing to either turn in a club renewal form or failing to update officer information on Campus Club Connection. The CCC allows officers to communicate with the school and their members, as well as request rooms for events and post information about their clubs online.
After a two week grace period following the deadline imposed by the SA Policy and Review Committee, the Committee severed the offending organizations from the CCC Web site until the process was completed.
“It’s actually the same policy as last year – nothing’s changed,” Assistant Director of Wilson Commons Student Activities Laura Ballou said. “There’s about 30 groups that are currently on probation. Some of these groups are probably not going to exist on their own fruition next year – it’s not that we’re saying they can’t exist; it’s that they don’t have interest in themselves renewing their organization,” Ballou said.
In a letter sent by the Policy Committee to the heads of all inactive groups, the Policy and Review Committee stated that groups will be subject to investigation and will be required to appear before the Policy and Review Committee. The groups will be expected to state why they have not yet renewed their status and must give a list of all activities the group has been a part of in the past year. Inactive club sports, meanwhile, must face the Club Sports Council. However, after going through this process, groups are generally reinstated. Generally the whole process is very quick, and the list of inactive members is updated daily, according to Wilson Commons Reservationist Nancy Mater.
“The renewal process is put in place to just make sure that groups that are active are in touch with their advisors and are adhering to their mission statements, and it also helps because it shows which groups are or are not active from year to year,” Chairperson of the SA Policy Committee Charlie Whitman said.
Some groups on campus have complained they were not given enough notification.
“Students are notified in several ways,” Ballou said. “There’s an announcement put up on CCC, Renewal Form in the Process is put in all student organizations’ mailboxes [in the Ruth Merrill Center]. We remind them at leadership training and business manager training, and also they receive an email from their advisors.”
President of Alpha Phi Omega, Eleanor Cashmore, noted that they did receive notification.
“I did get [the renewal form] in as soon I found out it wasn’t in,” Cashmore said.
AFO is no longer listed among the 30 groups still on probation. Other groups have also quickly gotten off probation, including several Greek organizations and performance groups.
“This number has actually decreased a lot from the date that we started the probation process, so once groups were put on this probation process, a lot of groups came in,” Ballou said.
Other groups have claimed that all relevant information was sent to former officers and not current ones.
“The only way we know who to contact is what’s on CCC, and that’s why we take so much value in people updating their information on CCC,” Ballou said.
Ballou also confirmed that officer transition could be a common problem, but that groups are supposed to update information during the spring semester.Brenneman is a member of the class of 2009.
