Minority student organizations on campus are suffering from a lack of involvement from incoming students at the university because of the seeming disinterest in many of these organizations.
These organizations operate under the realistic possibility that they could become extinct on this campus without student involvement.
If these organizations want to continue on the campus, then increased recruitment efforts may be necessary.
“There a[re] various reasons why students choose to participate or not to, either because they have a genuine interest in minorities’ issues, or either because [they] aren't interested or are unaware of the different organizations on campus, or they only become interested when they need help or feel hurt by the majority. Most of the time participation is low because students don't know or understand the importance of minority organizations....Our campus participation is small and even being a part of a minority organization comes with negative connotations and the carrying out of minority organizations falls on the few. We just have to work to get those who can and want to be a benefit to the minority organizations,” said Christian Kearney, the president of the Youth and College Division of the NAACP.
As with any organizations on campus, students are continuously graduating or sometimes choose to no longer participate because of personal reasons.
Some of the organizations that support minority students on campus include the Youth and College Division of NAACP, the Black Student Association, the Hispanic Latino Association, and the National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations.
In order to aid these organizations in succeeding, a new policy has been put into place for all student-based organizations on campus. This policy mandates that clubs and organizations on campus have a minimum of eight members maintained in their organizations.
After becoming aware of the policy, Quincy Goodine, president of the Black Student Association, said, “It begs the question, are they saying that these organizations are not worth having because they do not have eight members?”
If an organization is unable to maintain the minimum amount of participation, that organization is asked to complete a form, which details their past and future efforts to increase participation. In adherence with the policy, organizations that complete the form may be granted a temporary exemption from the eight member rule.
Deja Mills, the vice president of the Black Student Association, believes the policy is somewhat of a hindrance for minority students. “This is why we are not thriving on this campus, it’s because we are not set up to thrive,” she said.
Although there is the opportunity to possibly be exempt from the policy, many members of the minority groups still feel concern that the policy will mainly affect their organizations. According to Andrea Martinez, the assistant director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, the policy is for everyone to adhere to.
“It has never been our intention to hinder the success of our minority organizations with this policy,” says Martinez. “...when we make our expectation higher, people work harder to meet those expectations.”
Although the policy has the ability to close an organization on campus, it also has the ability to bring a higher rate of participation by encouraging an increase in recruitment efforts from minority groups.
