On Feb. 23, Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President of Student Groups Brea Neal announced that the Student Groups Committee would no longer be approving any new student group requests in the current academic year. 

The reason, according to Class of 2026 senator and committee member Justin Brajkovich, is based around establishing a baseline for duplicate similar groups. According to Brajkovich, “until we can find a baseline to control them and get it back in a place where it’s not four groups doing the same thing, there’s no point in adding any more.” 

To their point, we do have many examples of student organizations with very similar purposes, functions, events and even names. While the committee and VP of Student Groups is blatantly disregarding their constitutional obligation to review and ultimately approve or disapprove groups by refusing to approve any groups as a blanket statement, they express a fair concern. 

Take “dance groups” as an example. On the 2022-2023 SGA Approved Student Group list, there are four dance groups including the In-Motion Dance Troupe as a club sport, Heritage Dance Company as a student organization advised by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA), and ELITE Modeling Group and Urban Flow, also advised by MSA. The list is made available upon request from SGA and includes other examples of organizations with duplicate or closely related mission statements. 

The Student Group Handbook states that groups should be denied for “the mission statement of a group that closely resembles an already existing group,” yet somehow there are numerous examples of duplicate purpose student organizations. With a $600,000 spending deficit that Shippensburg University Student Services Incorporated (SUSSI) and SGA need to close this year, this poses a serious concern and is an area that the SGA Budget and Finance Committee should sincerely consider. 

Granted, the summation of all student group budgets (besides athletics and other overhead expenses) does not total $600,000, so this alone could not even come close to solving the budget problem. However, in considering one’s due diligence and fiscal responsibility for student fees, this is an important consideration, and I applaud them for committing to reviewing duplicate or similar organizations. 

With enrollment down over 20% since 2016, the institution needs to shrink with it, and this includes student organizations. Membership in most student organizations has correlatingly declined with enrollment over the years, yet the number of organizations has remained relatively flat-lined with some groups dissolving and new groups forming each year.

Currently there are over 130 student organizations chartered by the SGA Student Groups Committee and is an area that should be reviewed. Now applying a broad embargo on new group approvals may not be the best way to manage this, but those elected to govern student organizations must consider the duplicity of student organizations when considering the 2023-2024 operating budget and other policy changes. 

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