Since the beginning of this school year, ULM has made some drastic changes in several of its departments. One of these departments was Student Life and Leadership, specifically pertaining to Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs).

In fact, there was an indefinite ban on establishing new RSOs on ULM’s campus which started in the fall of 2018. This ban barred students and faculty from creating groups ranging from academic to social clubs, but thankfully, the ban has been lifted for most RSO groups seeking registration.

Meagan Lee, coordinator for Student Life and RSO advisor for ULM, explained why the ban, known as a moratorium, was initially placed on new RSO’s:

“The moratorium was initially put into place to temporarily prevent any new RSOs from being formed while the university administration reviewed and updated policies that specifically pertained to student life and student groups       on campus.”

Chuck Riddick, a junior communications major, says he is super excited about the ban coming to an end and ready to see what the new process is like.

When Riddick started his own RSO back in early fall, he had to jump through a lot of hoops to get things started, so he hopes the new process will encourage students “to get out of their comfort zones and start something big.”

This process took the administration most of last semester to completely update the new policies. During this time, Student Life and Leadership were not accepting any applications for new RSOs at all which angered several students trying to start RSOs to coincide with the new academic year.

It was unclear how many RSOs were waiting to be registered during the ban due to the suspension of the application process, but there were enough to encourage the administration to fast track their updates for the new semester.

As of spring 2019, Student Life and Leadership is now accepting applications for new RSOs again but only for professional, academic or cultural organizations – preferably with a national affiliation. Social RSOs are still on hold indefinitely.

Junior political science major Andrea Hernandez has begun the process of starting a new RSO on campus this semester called College Democrats. She is seeking to register the group as an academic club devoted to increasing political activity on campus and aiding Louisiana Democrats running for office.

Hernandez commented on the process saying that she was told she had to resubmit the group’s application from last semester, because all old applications were thrown out, and the application verification process took up to two to four weeks. She was taken back by the wait time, because College Democrats have the funding and on-campus interest, but overall, she’s just glad the ban has been lifted.

If you are interested like Hernandez in applying for a new RSO on campus within these requirements, applications can be found on the Student Life and Leadership webpage at ulm.edu/studentlife/. Detailed instructions on the process are provided under the tab: “How to   Create an RSO.”

Before you try to create a new RSO, make sure there isn’t already a chapter of the group you want to start on Wingspan, you have an academic advisor and there are at least 10 people interested in your group. After this, you can contact Meagan Lee at [email protected] to schedule an appointment about your potential RSO.