Students looking to start a new organization on campus should be aware of the funding changes that have taken place. The Plymouth State University Senate Judicial Committee along with the Student Senate, have passed changes that are designed to help students create organizations that will have solid membership and longevity.
The changes that have been made deal with how a new student organization will be allotted student funding, as well as the process by which they are recognized by the school. In the past, any new student group was eligible for funding as long as they drafted a constitution and contacted Jen White in the Student Activities offices to be recognized.
“For the most part, the steps to becoming recognized have remained the same; however, the period in which you complete the process has changed. Before, right after an organization met with White, they gained emerging group status,” said sophomore Gene Martin, political science major and member of Student Senate. “As soon as this status was secured through White, the group could write a constitution, come through Judicial and get approved in a matter of literally a month.” Now, the process is going to take 12 academic weeks before new organizations can submit their constitution.
The reasoning behind this change is that the school wants organizations to build their membership, hold meetings and create the purpose for their group. Many groups were seeking approval too quickly and would dissolve in a matter of weeks. Martin said, “After speaking to groups that suffered from this, we learned that they started too quickly and did not have the time to create a solid base for the organization.”
Another change that has been made is how new organizations will be funded. “Before, once the President of the University approved the organization, the organization would contact the Student Senate Treasurer, and they would then receive a $300 one-time start-up budget and would be eligible for the next Allocations hearing,” commented Martin. Funding will now only be given out at the group’s second Allocations hearing. This reasoning is similar to the changes in the approval process; the idea is that an organization will be solid before it receives student funds.
“To combat the obvious issue that student groups will not be able to received allocations for a year, the new student organizations will be granted complete and total rollover of all the funds in their accounts until they are eligible to go to allocations,” said Martin.
The changes will impact organizations because they will now have to work harder to build and generate funding. The hopes are that these changes will help students create focused and strong groups before they participate in the approval process.
“Students should expect that when they want to start a group they must think about whether or not this is going to be a group that will last years and not just months. The real purpose of the change is to helps groups succeed and work with them to insure they are building membership and raising funds, making them successful,” said Martin.