As per the joint decision made last semester by Community Service Network (CSN) and the Students’ Association Policy & Review Committee, community service clubs interested in working under the CSN will now go to the Policy & Review Committee for both preliminary and final recognition.
“The knowledge that the [CSN] has on what it takes to be a community service-based club and the knowledge that the Policy & Review Committee has on SA-approved clubs, makes this whole process a lot easier,” committee chair and sophomore Aditi Simlote said.
Simlote explained that in an effort to make the process easier for both parties, the committee aims to “make the [CSN] feel more comfortable with the decisions [it] make[s] in approving clubs.”
At a Senate meeting on Sept. 10, Simlote announced that a CSN representative will be present at all final recognition meetings in order to provide additional feedback.
CSN seems to be greeting the changes positively.
According to CSN co-president and junior Jessica Nielsen, the group’s executive board has been “making strides to work more closely with Policy & Review and this is one way we have decided [that] would be most beneficial.”
She explained that the decision is “a collaborative effort … to more effectively tailor the decisions of Policy & Review to CSN’s values and vice versa.”
Before the decision was enacted, CSN was responsible for giving preliminary status to groups, which then saw the Policy & Review Committee for final approval.
One of the groups’ overarching objectives is to streamline the overall proposal process, a move they have begun by halving the number of steps in the group approval process.
Nielsen explained that “this allows CSN to take a more guiding approach to preliminary status and new initiatives in general because more of the policy decisions work is backed by Policy & Review.”
“The club’s main goal is to build these new initiatives to become unique service groups and projects on campus and allow everyone’s ideas for helping our community be put into action [as] they so desire,” she added.
With both parties firmly on board with the change, all that remains before it is officially implemented is for CSN to produce a revised constitution that will be presented to the Senate within the next few weeks.
Teitelman is a member of the class of 2016.
