Posts Tagged ‘RSOs’
Activities fair lets groups recruit
Written by Alex Hosack
Thursday, 23 August 2012 16:30
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For many on-campus organizations, the Huge Activities Fair yesterday provided a great opportunity to promote themselves. The fair was hosted by the Center for Student Involvement and Associated Student Government.

“It’s a great way to have everyone out there – the organizations,” said Enilisse Ortiz-Romero, senior business administration major and student assistant for leadership for the CSI. “The students can just come quick and go and grab information about the organizations.”

This year’s fair was larger than that of previous years, providing students with more opportunities to learn about involvement in organizations as well as about upcoming events and workshops.

For many organizations, such as the ESU graduate school program, this was their first year of participation.

“We had never participated in this event before, and you get a lot of student traffic,” said Liz McLain, recruitment and development specialist for the graduate school. “We wanted some place where the students had an opportunity to come and ask questions about being a graduate student at Emporia State.”

The fair was held in the outdoor pedestrian mall between Plumb Hall and Memorial Union, making it easy for students to stop at tables between classes.

“We figured it was a good way to get the attention of a lot of people as they were walking by,” said Kirsten Zamarripa, senior accounting and business education major, who helped run the table for the ESU Ambassadors. “We’re trying to recruit hard for the spring semester.”

Many organizations had give-away items, ranging from Frisbees to candy for the students who stopped by their tables.

“I like seeing what’s going on around campus outside of class, and there’s a lot of organizations that I didn’t know about,” said Anne Harmon, senior psychology major.

The organizations represented ranged from recognized student organizations, university programs, support services and academic departments, to community service organizations. Many sororities and fraternities were also represented.

“We set up a table to help recruit as well as show our ideals and brotherhood,” said John Alfrey, senior speech and theatre major and Alpha Kappa Lambda member. “We also wanted to show what we do on campus such as our philanthropy, ‘These Hands Don’t Hurt’, and our participation in IFC sports, as well as sharing our motto of ‘men of character committed to making a difference.’”

 
Legislation beefs up community service requirements
Written by Bulletin Staff
Thursday, 27 October 2011 16:56
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In an effort to connect students with the community around them, the Associated Student Government passed a bill last year that revamped the community service policy for Recognized Student Organizations.

Under the new legislations, RSOs must have a must have a minimum of 20 hours of community service. No more than 10 hours of this service can be used for on campus activities. The remaining 10 hours must be provided elsewhere in the Emporia community.

“The idea is to get student organizations more involved in the community,” said Luke Drury, junior political science major, ASG legislative director and Community Hornets Service Corps member.

Drury said that the bill was passed because in previous years RSOs were only volunteering on-campus.

“We wanted to separate community service with campus service because they are two very different things,” said Ashely Vogts, senior interdisciplinary studies major and ASG president. “One’s getting out into the community and one’s on campus…we want our students to be represented on campus and do things that directly affects students as well as do stuff within our community because our community is what really hosts Emporia State.”

ASG and Community Hornets’ will host an open house from 2-5 p.m. today in the east lounge of the Memorial Union. They will hand out copies of the new legislation as well as calendars of service events that students can participate in.

The open house is a come and go event that allows for members of RSOs to talk with the ASG and Community Hornets to get a grasp of what qualifies as campus service and what qualifies as community service.

“Community service in general is always a really great idea because you are helping out the people who are helping you,” Vogts said. “Our campus is always in need of some sort of help, whether it’s cleaning up or if an organization is hosting a community service event on campus that they would like help with. The campus is what is helping us become more active and engaged citizens, so why not help the campus community, but also the Emporia community?”

Drury said that community service looks good on resumes but it also reflects positively on RSOs and on ESU as whole.

“Emporia State students are invested not only in their campus but also in their community,” Drury said.

Eden Tullis, senior English major and president of the Union Activities Council, said that she thinks the 10 hours of off campus service might be a little harder for RSOs to accomplish, but she also said it is important to do service within the Emporia community because Emporia does so much for the university.

“Since RSO’s are organizations on campus, their main focus is on campus and most of their time and effort is spent fulfilling the commitments of being part of that RSO,” Tullis said. “Getting off campus hours will require commitments outside of those usual campus-driven commitments, (but) this will allow for a more well-rounded experience.”

Tullis also thought that providing service event calendars will help RSOs and ESU students know what opportunities there are for them to get involved.

“Sometimes doing service with the community or lack thereof comes down to students and RSOs just not knowing what those opportunities are,” Tullis said. “A calendar will help RSO presidents and vice presidents get the word out to their members.”

All students are welcome to attend the open house and see what service opportunities Emporia has to offer.

Khaili Scarbrough

 
ASG senators rescind over 30 RSOs
Written by Sarah Shaw
Thursday, 01 October 2009 14:28
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ASG Senators vote to rescind more than 30 Recognized Student Organizations in a unanimous vote Sept. 24 in the Kanza Room of the Memorial Union. The student fees that had been allocated to these groups will be put back into the reserve fund where RSOs may request to use it. Kelsey Ryan/The Bulletin

ASG Senators vote to rescind more than 30 Recognized Student Organizations in a unanimous vote Sept. 24 in the Kanza Room of the Memorial Union. The student fees that had been allocated to these groups will be put back into the reserve fund where RSOs may request to use it. Kelsey Ryan/The Bulletin

Associated Student Government rescinded more than 30 student organizations in a unanimous vote on Sept. 24. The funds that these groups were receiving will go back into the reserve fund account where recognized student organizations can apply to use it.

“Once it is signed by the ASG Vice President, ASG President and President Lane, it will be official legislation,” said Whitney McGinnis, ASG graduate assistant. “But we look at it now as if they have been officially rescinded.”

Starting last April and continuing this year, ASG said it contacted all student organizations to find out if they were still active. There were about 10 groups that wanted to be rescinded because they were no longer organizations, and the other groups that make up the rescinded list are groups that did not respond to ASG’s attempts to contact them.

“The general gist of the bill is so that we have an idea of who is official representation of Emporia State University,” said Jonathan Krueger, ASG president and senior political science major. “It’s kind of trying to get us back on a clean start. There were several organizations that were rescinded that quite simply stated that they didn’t really have any intention of staying a student organization anymore, it’s kind of a way to make sure we’re offering student organizations to our population that are active.

“If we have a list of 140 student organizations that we give to potential students, we want to make sure that those organizations are actually available for people to join and aren’t some mystical group that’s just floating out in space that we know nothing about.”

Krueger said that a major problem in contacting organizations was that so many of them had few members or had gotten new leadership and not re-submitted the required form to ASG.

“Unfortunately, one of the difficulties is if there were a couple of years where a group isn’t looked after or leadership changes and nobody passes along the information, then we don’t get the updated information either,” Krueger said. “So we’re contacting people that potentially graduated or are no longer involved and we have no idea who else to contact.”

This was the case for the Korean Student Association. It is still active and recently was involved in the International Food Festival, but the contact information that it had listed with ASG wasn’t current. ASG was unable to easily contact the organization and so the Korean Student Association was placed on the list to be rescinded.

“Nobody has contacted me, I didn’t know we were being rescinded,” said Jiho Kim, sophomore nursing major and current president of the Korean Student Association. “I’m kind of surprised.”

This is an example of issues that will arise. Krueger said that those groups that were not contacted and have been rescinded will most likely find out when they ask for funds. At that point, the group will be asked to go through the re-recognition process.

However, Krueger stated that ASG contacted each group in multiple ways, so he thinks that it is unlikely there will be groups that did not realize they were rescinded.

“If there are groups that believe that they are still a recognized student organization after the passage of this bill, that would be something that we would have to sit down and talk to them about,” Krueger said. “As far as I know, I’m fairly certain that every group has been contacted in some manner or another. It wouldn’t have been an instance where we failed to get in contact with someone because of an error in part on our lack of effort.”

Another issue that arose was that these groups, while not active, are still on the list to receive allocations from student fees.

“If any of the organizations on the list received money through the allocations process they would lose any money that they received,” McGinnis said.

Regardless, the rescinded organizations will be able to re-gain funding if they go through the re-recognition process.

“The money will go back into reserve fund, and there is an opportunity that if they go through the re-recognition process that they can file a reserve fund request and ask for that money back,” Krueger said. “So we’re not carte blanche saying ‘you can’t have the money’ we’re saying ‘until you go through the steps to become re-recognized by us we are going to hold that money back.’”

Krueger said that he currently does not have an estimate of how much money will be pulled back into the reserve fund account, but will know by next week.

Sarah Shaw/The Bulletin

 
News Briefs – March 30,2009
Written by Kelsey Ryan
Monday, 30 March 2009 12:24
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PIE Emporia to host Meeting of the RSOs

The Program to Improve Emporia is hosting their second “Meeting of the RSOs” at 6:45 p.m. April 1 in front of the CSI office on the Memorial Union Main Street.

According to Harrison George, creator of the Program to Improve Emporia, the RSO meetings are designed to build a stronger network of communication between individual groups on campus.

George said he hopes this will lead to the increase in co-sponsoring of events, more awareness of events happening on campus and an open sharing of advice on how to increase membership and advertise effectively.

George said that if a student is active in a group on campus and wants to spread information, meet involved students from other groups, or learn more about what’s happening at ESU, this is a great place to start.

For more information about the Program to Improve Emporia, join their group on Facebook or contact Harrison George at hgeorge@emporia.edu.

Relay for Life to ‘Toon out Cancer’

The Lyon County Relay for Life, an American Cancer Society event, will be held April 24-25 at the Emporia High School Track. Relay For Life represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated, according to the Relay for Life Web site.

Some activities that will be available include Wii Bowling all night, Opening Ceremony, a Survivor’s Lap and a Luminary Ceremony, said Lauren Martin, sophomore nursing major and committee chair for the Lyon County Relay for Life.

Martin said that nearly 400 people participated in last year’s Lyon County Relay and that participants can still sign up at the Relay for Life Web site.

The theme for this year’s relay is “Toon out Cancer,” a cartoon theme.

For more information, contact Lauren Martin at 785-806-2363.

Jamnesty to feature performances, music

The first ESU Jamnesty will be held at 8 p.m. April 2 at Cole’s Bar on Commercial Street. Jamnesty will feature performances by The Bills, Eleflounder, Eric Murphy, Carlos Pringle, Dixon-Ball Stampede and the ESU Capoeira Team.

The event will include messages from various campus groups, including event co-sponsors. Co-sponsors include UAC, PRIDE, STAND, ESU Young Dems, POWER and HALO.

Members from both ASG president party tickets will also be present at Jamnesty and are also co-sponsors.
Masters of ceremony are Harrison George, junior sociology major, and Alex Pedersen, junior communication major.
The cost will be between $2-4 and a portion of donations will go to the co-sponsors.