Staff Editorial
Attention students. This year welcomes a change on campus that is worthy of notice. No, wednesday convo has not been cancelled and parking spots have not been added — this change has to do with student groups and activities.
We know Pepperdine’s political workings do not strike a cord with all students, though. This fact is impossible to ignore, especially if one takes into consideration the figures of this year’s SGA election, for example.
Fewer than 500 students voted, and there were five SGA positions that required student nominations at one of the organization’s earlier meetings.
But, that information aside, this year presents students with the opportunity to take advantage of the clean slate before them, and it starts with the Inter-Club Council.
The council, which had previously been an operation within SGA, is now the new one-stop shop for student organization funding and operations on campus. This is its first year as a separate governing body, financial resource and coordination hub for the organizations.
Now, if you got lost in the technical phrasing of all of that, let us break it down for you in four simple words — no more middle man.
SGA has always had a lot on its plate, dealing with administration, policy and all of the other aspects of campus that call for student attention, so separating from ICC was simply the right move for both.
This is not to say that ICC and SGA no longer collaborate. Quite the contrary, SGA and ICC, along with the Student Programming Board, which coordinates large campus activities, are co-equal partners in their efforts to address important student issues.
But, now that ICC has become a separate entity, those interested in student organizations can focus their efforts on what is really important to them.
ICC works with student organizations of every variety, such as the Black Student Union, the College Republicans and Young Democrats and the various Pepperdine Greek organizations. Bi-monthly budget meetings are held where a student delegate from each of the clubs, which number just under 40 and have about 1,370 members all together, can request different amounts of money for various events and dues for which the organizations have to pay.
ICC invests more than $40,000 in student activities each year, and about $4,500 is distributed at each of the semester’s 6 meetings. However, ICC does more than just give out money and coordinate with the leaders of already-established clubs.
Students interested in forming their own clubs simply need to fill out an online form and send it to the ICC in order to receive funding for their new organization.
ICC president John Deniston said accomplishing this task is easy for any student to do. There are no application dues for starting a club and the initial proposal, which used to be 7 pages, is now just 1 page back and front.
So, to all the students who complain about not being able to find an organization on campus that interests them, here is some simple advice — start one. All it takes is a little planning, a good deal of purpose and a lot of passion.
The students who would rather get involved on campus without any added responsibilities can also play a role in ICC. They can join an existing organization on campus and take advantage of the available resources that way. Or, students can simply attend the ICC meetings. Although only the designated delegates can contribute to the discussion and divvying process, all students, faculty and staff can attend the event to learn more about where their money is going.
And, being that all students pay an annual student fee of $120, which is included in tuition and is the funding that ICC distributes to each of the student organizations, there is reason for everyone at Pepperdine to both learn and take advantage of what it is being invested in — the students.
10-05-2006