The procedure that student groups undertake to gain University affiliation may be altered to expedite the process and ease the Student Government Association’s involvement.

Prospective student groups, through the new system, would simply register through University administration, not SGA, submitting the names eight members and an adviser, who can be any faculty or staff member.

The process in place requires the prospective groups to not only present the names of an adviser and eight members, but also meet with separately with the SGA adviser and attorney general.

The attorney general will then guide the prospective leader of the group in approving a constitution that adheres to university policy and hear their plans for community service.

Members of the SGA senate then vote to approve the group.

250 student groups are active on campus, and of those, roughly 80 receive funding through SGA and therefore were required to gain SGA affiliation, Associate Vice President Campus Life Teri Hall said.

“With as large an amount of students, I’d expect to have more student groups than we do,” she said.

Student groups that are not SGA-affiliated also undertake a similar process with the department in which they are registering.
For example, sports clubs register through the sport club council, Hall said, and require a constitution. That department then assists them in planning a budget.

SGA Attorney General Glorimar Quinones is on a committee that will brainstorm a more effective process for registering student groups.

One idea the SGA is considering is that new groups will apply through the University, then if they wanted SGA funds, they could start a longer approval process in which they would need all the previous requirements: a constitution, budget, adviser and community service.

“The goal in general is to increase the number of student organizations,” Quinones said.

This new process, if approved, would be the only method of securing University affiliation.

Other advantages of SGA affiliation include reserving University space for free and advertising space in campus kiosks and electronic signboard.

Hall said the SGA has maintained the same process for over 14 years, but that student group registration processes at universities across the country have changed.

“My hope is that we’re coming up with a process that is more open and neutral,” she said. “This is more of a registration process than an approval process.”

This prospective policy comes hot off the heels of SGA’s approval of controversial student group Youth for Western Civilization, which gained significant media attention the previous semester after they took a public stance against same-sex marriage and cultural education.