The Council on Student Organizations, charged with allocating funds to many student groups, is considering structural changes in response to concerns about the selection of its members and the group's ties to other campus organizations.
The membership selection process and the accountability of the organization -- which oversees a budget of $180,000 -- have been among the subjects recently discussed by COSO members, the Student Assembly and other students, according to Linda Kennedy, COSO Chair and Director of Student Activities.
"There will be change," Kennedy said. "We are considering revising our selection method and are looking at a variety of different possibilities."
Over the past several meetings, COSO members have discussed potential changes to improve the organization's structure, she said.
Kennedy explained that the impetus for change came partly from the concerns of students who felt "less than satisfied with their perceived access to the membership process," which is open only to freshmen and run entirely by sitting COSO members.
Assembly leaders, who have met informally with COSO members, spoke of similar student complaints.
"There are a lot of people who apply to COSO, and the people who are chosen are qualified and do a good job. At the same time not everybody knows about the selection process," Student Body President Molly Stutzman '02 said.
Under the current system, freshman applicants for membership positions must submit a questionnaire to COSO members, who review the applications and choose a smaller group of students to be interviewed. The members then select six of these students during a Spring term meeting that is closed to the public.
Seating an Assembly member on a potential "selection commission" might go some ways towards addressing concerns that the member selection process is secretive and lacks campus-wide input, COSO member Kumar Garg '03 suggested.
COSO member and Assembly representative Aly Rahim '02 invited students to scrutinize COSO, saying that the current process "isn't ideal ... there's a lot of potential for reform and change."
Student Body Vice President Michael Newton '04 advocated implementing elections for COSO members, arguing that opening the positions to the vote would "create a lot more transparency and accountability" for the organization.
COSO members themselves were hesitant to endorse.
Kennedy said the current application process is necessary to "ensure a good balance of gender and diversity and experience," while Garg feared that elections might degenerate into a simple popularity contest.
Other concerns raised by Stutzman and Newton revolved around COSO's relation to other campus organizations, such as the Programming Board and the Class Councils, which are also sources of funding for campus activities.
She said that many students had come to her with ideas for new campus organizations, but had been confused over whom to approach for funding.
"You can look at all these various groups and there's not a lot of communication between them," Stutzman said. "Does it make sense to have programming money distributed among a variety of groups, and would it be better if it were more centralized?"
Stutzman dismissed the idea that such centralization necessarily meant a greater role for the Assembly in COSO's affairs and said, "Michael [Newton] and I are looking at these issues because we want to empower the entire Student Body. This is not out of a personal desire to usurp COSO for Student Assembly."
Still, Rahim argued that increased student input is essential in ensuring COSO's accountability and responsiveness to the student body. "There is a need to empower students with the significant leverage that comes from governing their own financial resources," he said.
While admitting that the funding process can often be unclear and frustrating to student organizations, Garg said that Assembly should maintain its separate role apart from COSO.
"If [Assembly] wants more influence simply to increase their own power, than it's not a good reason," he said.
Kennedy opposed the idea of increased centralization on the grounds that the current wide array of organizations provides a equally wide range of leadership opportunities for students.
"I think one of the greatest things at the College is that there are so many leadership activities here," she said. "There could be a system where I could just go to Student 'X' for everything, but I think that what we get out of having a more diverse leadership is to our advantage."
Both Kennedy and Garg said that some degree of frustration on the part of student organizations is inevitable, and cannot be eased by any structural change.
"From our perspective, there's only so much money that we have," Garg said, stressing that the process of allocating funds is one that will inevitably leave some groups feeling slighted.
Nonetheless, both COSO and Assembly members agreed that some sort of change to the current system is necessary.
