Student Activities

Committee on Student Organizations

The Committee on Student Organizations (CoSO) was formed for the purpose of recognizing new student groups, re-recognizing student organizations, and offering support to these groups campus wide.  The committee is composed of representatives from Graduate Student Assembly, Undergraduate Student Senate and several student organizations with advising from Student Activities.

Recognition entitles a student organization to many benefits:

  1. Ability to apply for funding eligibility status from the Joint Funding Committee
  2. Ability to reserve meeting places on campus through the use of SpaceQuest
  3. Access to the university accounting system to make purchases and deposit allocations
  4. Ability to request a UC mailbox, an organization email account, and Andrew web space
  5. Eligibility to petition for office or storage space in the UC and elsewhere on campus
  6. Permission to poster on bulletin boards throughout campus
  7. Eligibility to participate in the Fall & Winter Activities Fairs

Below are the step-by step instructions on how to complete your recognition process:

New Organization Recognition

  1. Decide on a mission statement;
  2. Draft a constitution or a set of organizational by-laws;
  3. Ensure that you have three contacts/officers (or at least two contacts/officers with a faculty or staff advisor);
  4. List at least 8 additional members of your organization;
  5. Email CoSO with your completed New Recognition Application and constitution.

    A representative from the CoSO committee will be in contact with your organization’s primary contact to set-up a meeting to discuss the new recognition application.

Re-Recognition

Every recognized student organization that wants to continue to receive the above benefits must complete this process annually.

The Re-recognition Application will include the following:

  1. constitution or organizational by-laws
  2. list of contacts/officers and list members (faculty or staff advisor, if applicable);
  3. A report of organizational activities within the past academic year;
  4. A statement or plan for your organization, which includes goals related to your mission or special interest, as well as activities that the group intends to host;
  5. Update OrgTracker.
When drafting your constitution, keep the following points in the mind:
  1. Commitment to abide by the Statement of Assurance .
  2. Who can join your organization? Are you geared towards a particular student population?
  3. How do you define organizational membership?
  4. What is the governing structure of your organization? What are the duties of officers or contact?
  5. How will your organization select leadership?  How do you remove someone from office?
  6. How will you amend your constitution or organizational by-laws?
  7. Keep in mind how your constitution will be interpreted 5 to 10 years from now.

For more help is creating or revising your constitution, please consult the Constitution Checklist