'Endangered' Clubs Warned by OSACS

By SARA MARRON

Flyers posted around campus warn some clubs that they are “endangered of becoming extinct” because they have failed to reregister this year with the Office of Student Activities and Community Service.

Each year that a club or organization wishes to hold meetings, policy requires that they register with the Office of Student Activities and Community Service (OSACS) in order to be recognized by the Inter-Club Association, according to the Student Organization Policy Handbook.  Clubs recognized by the Inter-Club Association are allowed web space and entitled to an email account.

Currently the following clubs have not reregistered and will be discontinued unless the proper forms are filled out and submitted to OSACS: Animal Rights Club, Atheist, Agnostics, Freethinkers, and Friends, Breakers, E Pluribus Unum-Political Awareness Club, Economic Development Club, Fashion International, Free-Styling Club, Labor Rights Club and Students for Gender Equality.

Any club that has been crossed out on the posted flyers has completed the required paperwork and is no longer endangered.
Program Support Technician of OSACS Veronica Valento said the members of these clubs must fill out the required paperwork immediately.

“We let clubs have one year on non-participation, but after two-years of not being a club, they have to come back to the ICA and write and entirely new constitution, rather than just re-submitting paperwork,” Valento said.

In order to verify an existing institutionally recognized club, or to start a new one, a request for network verification form must be completed. These forms can be found on Eaglelink, under the “University Life” tab. The form is one page long, and asks for information such as the name of the club, a brief description of purpose, as well as the contact information of the president and faculty advisor.

“To operate as a club on this campus, you have to go through [OSACS],” Valento said.

As students graduate, clubs are left without leaders and officers that normally took care of the registration each year.

“Some people don’t realize that with the change of hierarchy, their club hasn’t been registered yet, and if they want to carry on, all they have to do is fill out a simple form,” Valento said.

Junior Matt Motley is a member of the Breakers club, one of the clubs listed as endangered. According to Motley, the Breakers had complied with the paperwork requirements for this semester, but OSACS never received them.

“We actually already had filled it out…but I guess OSACS had misplaced it,” Motley said. “Its kind of a normal thing for them (OSACS) to loose our stuff.”

Junior Leann Taggart attended an event hosted by the Fashion International Club last year, another club listed on the endangered list. If the club is not reregistered this year, future events will not be possible.

“It was a lot of fun,” Taggard said. “If they hosted another, I would go again.”