Members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, Chair of the Committee of Student Life (CSL) Barbara Grossman and Dean of Students Bruce Reitman met in a preliminary meeting Feb. 24 to discuss the issue of recognizing and re-recognizing student groups.
Grossman, also an associate drama and dance professor, said the purpose of the meeting was purely investigative and that no final consensus was reached.
"The purpose of the meeting was exploratory: to look at equitable ways in which the Senate and the J [Judiciary] can look at the issue of club recognition given that resources are finite and limited."
Senior Jeff Katzin, president of the TCU Senate, said that any group wishing to be formally recognized must draw up a constitution, obtain at least 15 signatures in support, and present some sort of advertisement proving that a general interest meeting will be or has been held.
Currently, all groups, unless they are athletic or religious, must attain temporary recognition status from the Office of Student Activities before turning in an application to the Judiciary, which decides whether or not to approve the group.
If the Judiciary decides not to approve the group, its members may appeal to the CSL for recognition.
Katzin said the Senate and the Judiciary are concerned about groups with very similar objectives, given that resources for student groups are limited.
"There are budget implications," he said. "Sometimes there are two groups that have a very similar mission. It's hard to tell two groups 'you have to become one.'"
While the merging of two groups alleviates the burden on the Senate to allocate funds, Katzin said pressing groups to do so might actually create more problems.
"I don't think you have to force two groups together," he said. "It can cause bad blood. It's something we have to discuss."
The meeting also allowed for more communication among the CSL and different parts of the TCU. "There's not a lot of interaction between the Judiciary, the CSL and the Senate together," Katzin said.
Every two years, the Judiciary evaluates all student groups to determine whether they still have the three main criteria - a constitution, 15 signatures and proof of meeting - and if they are still viable as organizations. In this re-recognition of groups, ambiguity often emerges.
"The rules for recognition of groups are pretty set, but there's [less] on re-recognition," Kazin said, adding that with luck the new guidelines will give the Judiciary more power in decision-making, though the CSL has the final say on this issue.
The criteria and procedures for the recognition of student organizations are outlined in the Tufts Pachyderm handbook, but Katzin said the meeting focused on clarifying the wording of the guidelines for re-recognizing groups, especially when involving two or more groups with comparable goals.
The meeting helped start a brainstorming process, Grossman said.
"[The meeting's point was] to thrash out some issues... to clarify policy, recognizing that it is a complicated issue," she added. "The meeting came out of a human desire to better serve our students, yet recognizing that funds are limited and space is limited."
"The point is not to cut off student organizations," she said. "The point is for groups [to start] working together rather than competing. It would be nice if groups could work together, and did, instead of competing against one another for limited resources."
Part of the purpose of the brainstorming is to improve the recognition procedures for all parties involved, she said, but the ultimate goal is to help groups that serve "similar communities" from having to compete with each other.
"It's coming out of a serious desire to make the process better than it is [currently]," she said.
As of now, the rules are such that no groups will be forced to merge or penalized for
refusing.
