Students search for new club opportunities with SGA changes

With the recent change to the SGA constitution eliminating paid positions in the senate, many students expected the funding to be allocated to on-campus clubs, which has been considered an overwhelming need for many years. However, clubs are still under-funded and lack a strong presence on campus.

According to senior and president Ariana Lopez, SGA allocates funds to clubs every fall and spring semester. Each club is given the opportunity to propose how much money they need.

“The allocation of funds is not going to change because of our change in the constitution. SGA has no control over where the extra money will go. That is all a part of Human Resources since they are the ones who pay the student leaders,” Lopez said.

Vanguard clubs are funded by the Inter Club Council (ICC), and last semester Tim Young, Vice President of Student Affairs and a member of ICC, gave SGA more funding to distribute for the clubs, according Sophomore Senator Paisley Quitoriano.

“Because we had such a tight budget before, Tim graciously gave us more money to use towards clubs,” Quitoriano said.

Freshman Mikayla Singleterry stated that at the beginning of the year she was unaware that Vanguard even offered clubs for students to get involved in.

“I feel like I never really hear anything about them. The clubs are never consistent with the information meetings or events that they have, and if I ever hear about a club event it is usually because I heard about it the same day the event is,” Singleterry said.

El Puente club president Damariz Guerrero stated that to put on club events, it takes a lot of time and planning out to make it a reality. It takes planning in marketing, cabinet meetings, and focusing on empowering students through those club events.

“Putting on an event is not about the numbers, but about the relationships with the Latino community on campus. We aim to have at least one or two events a month and try to stay consistent throughout the year,” Guerrero said.

Students often give ideas for clubs they would like to be involved in. For example, Singleterry offered an idea for a painting or art club. Freshman Melanie Edwards said that she would like to see more clubs geared around people’s majors; for example, a photography club for cinema arts majors.

Edwards said there should be a wider range of clubs to choose from at Vanguard which would make students more active and engaged, similar to the way many students were so involved in their high schools. “I have no idea where to even begin with starting a club if I wanted to. I don’t know where I would go or who I would talk to,” freshman Caitlyn Velazquez said.

A senior student, Kristen Fox, believes that there should be a club for Global Education Outreach to where students can be involved and go volunteer in the community.

“I think that an expansion of clubs at Vanguard would give more students the opportunity to get involved in something they might find interesting of fun,” Fox said.

Director of Global Education Outreach, Kayli Hillebrand, stated that there has not been an influx of students wanting to get involved with GEO, which makes it very difficult to start a club when very few students are interested.

“I would love to see students lead the start of a GEO club. We haven’t ever started a club like this because of the lack of student interest, but it would be awesome to start something where more students can get involved,” Hillebrand said.