Student Government Association Secretary of the Registry Shayan Raza announced a new Registered Student Organization application process that aims to address common concerns faced by student groups, including confusion in the initial application process, lack of SGA support and small issues in the language of their constitutions.

Many student groups found the process of beginning the process to become an RSO daunting due to lack of information available to them at the time of registration.

“It was really hard to keep up with how many folks were interested in applying to become an RSO and how many actually did end up applying,” Raza said. “The discrepancy between the two is pretty important.” Essentially, different groups of students had varying degrees of interest upon reaching out to the Secretary of the Registry and receiving application materials.

“One of the changes we made because of that was adopting an interest form,” Raza continued. The interest form acts as the first step of the application process and provides an outlet for SGA members and student organizations to plan the official application.

Student groups also experienced issues with a lack of assistance from the SGA with the application process.

“I couldn’t provide an individual review because I’m the one reviewing [the application],” Raza explained.

With the previous process, Raza could not provide specific advice to student groups because he would have to personally approve or deny them. Now, the Undergraduate Registry Oversight Committee will help prospective RSOs with individual meetings before they submit their applications for approval.

The SGA is also providing student groups with verbatim language to apply to their application materials to avoid rejections due to incorrect language in their free speech and discrimination clauses.

According to Raza, “45 percent of those denied were denied based on those requirements.” Additionally, this change should decrease the number of groups that abandon their plans to become an RSO, as there was a “50-to-60 percent drop-off from being disillusioned by the process” following a rejection.

While plans to provide an interest form, direct support to student groups and verbatim constitution language should address RSO concerns, Raza is “very open to changing the process” if the new changes do not fully address the needs of student groups.

Prospective RSOs are encouraged by Raza to begin their application process as soon as possible.

Lucas Ruud can be reached at [email protected],