Faculty advisers required to head every USU club
The ASUSU executive council acknowledged an amendment to the Council of Student Clubs and Organizations manual at their meeting Wednesday that will require all future student clubs and organizations to have a faculty adviser.
Currently about 20 percent of active clubs have their own advisor. The former manual recommended, but did not require, clubs to have their own advisers. The amendment, which goes into effect Fall 2011, will require all student clubs and organizations to have their own adviser, who must be a full-time faculty member with full benefits.
Kaho Fiefia, ASUSU diversity vice president and a member of the informal committee that oversaw the amendment, said the main reason for the amendment was concern over club longevity. He said many clubs were starting but fell apart soon after.
Keenan Nuehring, ASUSU administrative assistant, said another possible benefit of this amendment is that it may “weed out clubs that aren’t functional.”
This amendment was also connected in part to a failed club fund bill introduced earlier this semester. The club fund bill would have created an annual $30,000 fund available to student clubs and organizations. One of the reasons the bill failed was concern that the bill would have created additional hours and responsibilities for ASUSU advisers and council members. For liability reasons, an adviser must be present at any event hosted by a student club or organization. ASUSU advisers and council members were concerned that the bill would have created more events, which may have added additional hours to the ASUSU advisers’ already full-time positions. This amendment to the clubs and organizations manual will require clubs to provide their own advisers to supervise events.
“Overall (the amendment) is a step in the right direction for the university,” said Kevin Webb, program coordinator for the student involvement and leadership center and an ASUSU adviser, “and it might help a club fund of some sort go through in the future.”
This new amendment will also require that all checks be made out to the adviser rather than club members.
ASUSU plans to present this amendment to the faculty senate in April, to inform faculty members that more students will be asking them to be their clubs’ advisers next year. The faculty senate is a body of faculty members who meet to discuss concerns and issues they have.
“I think faculty will see how much need the student clubs have for advising and funding,” Fiefia said, “more faculty will see the student’s perspective.”
The ASUSU executive council also reviewed its 2010-11 budget and discussed budget recommendations for next year at its meeting Wednesday.
Each year the ASUSU executive council recommends a budget to the incoming council. These budget recommendations are based on estimates of how much money will be collected from student fees. The current ASUSU council has not approved an official budget recommendation yet but plans to in April or May. The incoming council will vote on these recommendations before this coming Fall.
“I think we budgeted low last year,” said Lynne Singleton, business manager for ASUSU. “This year with increased enrollment projections, we maybe able to estimate higher.”
There is currently about $58,000 of unspent funds in ASUSU’s budget; however, most of these monies will be used for various events in April and will carry ASUSU through the end of the fiscal year.
Any monies leftover will go to the Capital and Support fund. This fund accumulates money not spent in the past years and is available to student groups and organizations.
“I have to commend the executive council,” said Tom Atwood, ASUSU programming vice president. “Monies were not overspent nor underspent this year. Everyone stuck to their budgets with fiscal care.”
At the end of the 2009-10 school year the current executive council approved an extra $2,000 to go to Greek organizations, $9,000 to go to the Aggie Blue Leadership conference that was held in the Fall, and $175 went to each college senator’s budget.
Tyler Tolson, ASUSU president, said by giving $9,000 to the leadership conference, organizers were able to lower the registration price from $75 to $25, allowing for a 275 percent increase in student participation in the conference. Tolson also said it is unlikely the Greeks, the Aggie Blue conference and college senators will get the same extra allocations next year. He said he wanted to stress that the $2,000 given to the Greeks was an extra allotment and will not affect their regular funding.
– rouchelle.brockman@gmail.com