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October 27, 2006 > Opinion > Clubs approval process needs no more red tape

Clubs approval process needs no more red tape

By The Rice Thresher Editorial Staff | Thresher Editorial Staff

The Student Association’s clubs approval process has undergone several revisions in the past few years, and the floor opened at Monday’s SA meeting for another discussion of the process. (See SA box, page 8.) But before any more subcommittees are formed or new rigors added to the approval procedure, we encourage the SA to consider just how much red tape should be put in the way of students trying to form organized groups.

We acknowledge that clubs should be screened before being allowed access to the benefits of official club status, which include free use of certain campus spaces, a mailbox and a bank account, but not necessarily accompanying funds. The current procedure requires prospective clubs’ representatives to fill out a one-page questionnaire and defend their organizations’ merits to the SA at an open meeting. The forms have grown longer and more detailed over the past two years, and the question-and-answer sessions of late have been peppered with inquiries that have already been answered on the forms — an inefficient method at best.

So, we encourage the SA to look for ways to improve the clubs approval and renewal processes, including the use of Internet forms for efficiency and finding a means of screening for redundant organizations. But we hope this process will not inhibit groups from forming if students may benefit from a club’s existence, even if the benefit is purely whimsical. And while recently disbanded clubs such as the Renegade Ninja Society and Rice University Mystic Inspirations may not have been formed to initiate large-scale social revolution, we believe campus was better off with them than without them.

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