ODUS to purge 26 groups

This fall, the Student Groups Recognition Committee instated a year-long clean-up initiative that will filter inactive student groups from the current Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students financial database. A list generated this October by the SGRC identified 30 student organizations that the committee considered inactive.

ODUS is responsible for overseeing the funding and facilitating the financial transactions of student groups. The Daily Princetonian is independent of the University and not affiliated with ODUS.

“The goal of the project is to have a directory of opportunities that students can take advantage of,” USG Student Groups Liaison and Chair of the SGRC Jack Ching ’13 said.

Currently, 26 groups determined as inactive are scheduled to be shut down, he added.

However, in an email solicitation to the over 250 groups listed on the ODUS Student Organization Directory as supposedly active, the ‘Prince’ received only 64 responses from established student groups. Six groups had undergone a change in leadership unnoted by the online directory, and three former presidents responded that their organization was no longer active.

Inquiries bounced back from 12 of the emails listed on the ODUS directory.

The SGRC considers student groups inactive if they have not had a financial transaction — that is, no money has been deposited or withdrawn from their ODUS account — during the last three years. The overhaul is designed to be a multistage process, Ching explained.

First, the committee encouraged members of the groups it considered inactive to contact the SGRC before deactivation. They also offered the opportunity for any interested student to reactivate one of the organizations through a reapplication process.

Of these groups, the 26 scheduled for elimination did not respond to follow-up emails from the USG.

Following this filtration, students who intend to establish their own campus organizations will have to complete an application available on the USG website. The application consists of outlining the group’s purpose, planned events, leadership structure and interested membership. Leaders must also provide a petition with a minimum of 20 signatures and an outline of their student group constitution.

Students who complete the application will meet with members of the SGRC to clarify and brainstorm exactly how they define themselves.

“We help envision their group one step beyond,” Ching explained. “We ask them the questions that will help lead them into a more effective organization.”

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The SGRC also plans to establish an annual re-chartering process, which will include updating the student organization’s officers and the brief descriptions of groups’ mission statements included in the ODUS online directory.

“We are laying the foundation for a more comprehensive system in the future to catch student groups as they become inactive,” Ching added, noting that the University’s new system of organization is modeled off of that of Stanford University.

While the SGRC is seeking to deactivate the number of inactive student groups on campus, it also aims to limit the creation of student groups with indistinguishable purposes. Logan Coleman ’15 noted that many groups at this year’s Activities Fair looked very similar, a redundancy she likened to high school clubs.

“When you have multiple groups working toward the same goal, it can be counterproductive,” she said.

Ching said that the SGRC encounters many group proposals similar to preexisting student organizations, though he noted that students who send the applications tend to have distinct ideas and are unwilling to compromise.

“People have a much more micro-minded perspective, rather than looking more broadly at the larger campus community,” Ching said. “Princeton students are ambitious and have very clear, set goals. They are less willing to compromise to have what they want.”

Ching said he believes that this speaks to the culture of Princeton as a genuine and active campus. “I like to think that people are doing it because they’re passionate about the cause,” he said. “The effort will stand time and will make a difference.”

The SGRC has received 40 student group applications since February 2011, only two or three of which were not accepted. The founders of these rejected groups can resubmit their application. While the SGRC clean-up initiative does not yet seem to have reshaped the quantity or quality of student groups on campus, it is the first filter project of its kind. By the end of the year, the committee intends to create a fully operational directory of active student groups for potential members.

The SGRC has not traditionally taken a role outside of approving student groups, Ching explained. He added that he hopes this year the SGRC will act as more of a liaison between the USG and student organizations.