Appeals take place this week

UPDATE (Dec. 5, 4:47 p.m.): The Committee for Student Organizations has recommended the dechartering of all 19 Chartered Student Organizations who were previously under review. Their final status will be voted on at the Senate meeting on Wednesday, December 7 at 5 p.m. in the Senate Chambers in the Busch Student Center. The CSOs are the following:

Alpha Epsilon Delta, Alpha Sigma Nu, Amnesty International, Anthropology, Criminal Justice & Sociology, Artifex, Camp Kesem, Capture: Photography Club, Finance Society, French Club/SLU Pi Delta Phi, Freshmen in Business, Math and Computer Science Club (MCSC), Physician Assistant Association, Political Science Club, Public Relations Club, Sigma Delta Pi Honors Spanish, SLU Ad Club, SLUraaga Fusion Dance Team, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and Social Work Association.

For more information contact Tyler Sondag, SGA Vice President for Student Organizations, at [email protected].

During the Student Government Association senate meeting on Nov. 30, the committee for student organizations said that 19 chartered student organizations are facing the possibility of losing their charters. To maintain them, the CSOs must make an appeal to the committee before next week’s SGA meeting. If a charter is revoked, the CSO will lose the rights to request funds from SGA, to post about the organization on campus and to reserve space on campus.

The committee prompted the recommendations to review charters after the CSOs failed to respond to a series of emails from the committee, neglected to update their contact information and failed to meet with SGA about the activity of their organizations.

According to the recommendations from the committee, there are five options that the senate can take when reviewing the charters of the CSOs: Take no action, administer a disciplinary sanction at the discretion of the senate, instill a three-month probation period, suspend the charter for one year or a revoke the charter, losing recognition and privileges permanently.

In May of 2011, Vice President of Student Organizations Tyler Sondag sent an email to the CSOs, asking them to update their contact information. Many of the students who held positions in their executive boards would be changing the following year. Sondag said that the majority of his inquiries were either sent back to him or sent to email accounts of executive boards who were no longer in service.

In August, Sondag spoke with representatives of the Division of Student Development about the issue, searching for a way to contact CSOs and determining which of them were currently active. By September, he presented a list of CSOs who had not responded to him to the committee. He informed the CSOs that their charter would be up for review by SGA. This time, more than 100 CSOs responded to him, providing their updated contact information.

“After this we were able to create a series of funnels to determine what organizations have not responded to us and sent some focused emails to these organizations,” Sondag said.

In November, Sondag said he emailed approximately 45 CSOs, informing them that the committee believed they “might not currently meet the qualifications of a Chartered Student Organization,” and that the committee “would like to meet with your CSO’s leadership to discuss the future of your Chartered Student Organization.”

Of the 45 who were notified, 26 met with the committee to update their contact information and provide SGA with a report of the CSO’s activities.The 19 CSOs that did not arrange to meet with the committee or respond to the email received notices that they would have a chance to appeal the potential of losing the charter.

The following CSOs are under review by the committee: Alpha Epsilon Delta, Alpha Sigma Nu, Amnesty International, Anthropology, Criminal Justice & Sociology, Artifex, Camp Kesem, Capture: Photography Club, Finance Society, French Club/SLU Pi Delta Phi, Freshmen in Business, Math and Computer Science Club (MCSC), Physician Assistant Association, Political Science Club, Public Relations Club, Sigma Delta Pi Honors Spanish, SLU Ad Club, SLUraaga Fusion Dance Team, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and Social Work Association.

The CSOs must give a presentation to SGA next week, Dec. 7, to appeal the committee’s decision.At the meeting on Nov. 30, SGA also heard internal recommendations over spot-funding from Vice President of Internal Affairs Scott Hessel and Financial Vice President Jonathan Serpas.

In regard to senators who expressed concern about the decreasing spot-funding pool, the internal affairs and finance committees decided to display the amount of available funds during SGA meetings. The decision was met with resistance from some senators who did not want the information to be displayed in front of CSOs during the meeting. Some senators were concerned because they did not receive consultation regarding the matter.

SGA also awarded five students with the Upperclassmen Scholarship. The recipients Chelsea Jaeger, Rachel Grimmer, Jimmy Meiners, Grant Podolski and Tyler Sondag. Meiners, Podolski and Sondag currently serve on SGA. SGA also seated and confirmed the 2012 election commission for the SGA elections next spring.