A renewed legislation of the structure for approving and regulating clubs at the College was passed Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Student Government meeting. Devin Dimmig, vice president for governmental affairs and junior history and secondary education major, sponsored and presented the bill with the hopes it will help SG with the approval of clubs, and to be sure too many clubs are not being approved.
“It is stressing our facilities,” said Dimmig, referring to the over 200 current clubs at the College. “We have a lot of clubs that may not exactly contribute to campus on a regular basis.”
The 11-step bill makes alterations to the current approach SG takes when approving a new club.
A proposal for an athletic club will be “flagged” as there have been liability concerns in the past, according to the bill.
Another change being made is that individual clubs will not speak on their own behalf when presenting to SG for recognition. Instead, the constitutional review chair will speak on the club’s behalf, “including the club’s potential strengths and weaknesses identified by the Governmental Affairs Committee,” stated the bill. Club representatives will however be present in case clarification is needed. Upon voting for or against the bill, club representatives will not be present. This precaution was put into the bill so the student body would not feel swayed by having a representative from the club in the room.
New clubs approved by SG will then register with Student Activities. They will also have to prepare for “re-accreditation” two years after they have been recognized by SG. This is meant to check up on the clubs and make sure they are following through with their initial purposes, according to SG.
After being unanimously approved by the student government body during the voting process, the bill was passed.
New members were sworn in at the beginning of the meeting after the results of the election last week. A general body retreat was held this weekend to help prepare the new SG members for their positions.
Following up on the promotional election events, Annie Montero announced the presidential-themed Eickhoff dinner Oct. 23 would feature meals from the presidents’ balls.
The newly appointed freshman class president Shap Bahary was also introduced at the meeting.
