The Student Association (SA) at Binghamton University is speeding up the club chartering process.

Now, after clubs have had a provisional charter for an entire year, they can apply for a full charter from the executive vice president (EVP) instead of the Internal Affairs Committee (IA). The EVP will then review the organization’s compliance with the chartering rubric and success, and if the performance is deemed satisfactory, the organization will receive a full charter. The proposal was titled “Resolution to Streamline the Chartering Process,” and was authored by Chance Fiorisi, the SA parliamentarian and a sophomore majoring in philosophy, politics and law,

Fiorisi explained the previous process for chartering organizations and the issues involved with it.

“The major change that occurs here is that we have taken the Internal Affairs Committee out of the equation for clubs looking to receive their full charters,” Fiorisi wrote in an email. “Previously, as most clubs know, they had to present to IA for their provisional charter. Later on, after a year, they would then return to IA to present for full charter. We are cutting out IA in the final steps because, to be frank, it would be quicker for the executive vice president’s office, who starts the chartering process, to then end the process.“

According to the resolution, the previous management policies faced backlogs, slowing the process of approving organizations to be chartered. Daniel Rocabado, the EVP and a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, further addressed the negative outcomes that arose as a result of a slow-paced management policy and heavy backlog.

“In my opinion, while this model was sustainable during a time when the SA did not have as many organizations, the increase of diversity, interests and student creativity within this University has created an influx of amazing organizations waiting to serve the BU campus and community,” Rocabado wrote in an email. “This increase means the IA has to meet with more organizations on top of the other responsibilities they have, like approving constitutions. Because of this, IA has an enormous workload that could easily lead to wait times for organizations to set an appointment.”

With the new amendment to the previous resolution, there is less wait time for organizations to get chartered. According to Rocabado, instead of waiting for IA to set up a meeting, the EVP can set up a meeting with the organization’s student representative based on their available office hours for both the EVP and the student representative. This allows for a better ‘streamline’ as students and the EVP will have a direct line of communication in the process and can discuss other matters such as space allocations and updating constitutions.

Fiorisi outlined some of the positive impacts of not having to rely on the IA when finalizing charters.

“It is extremely accessible now, because now what happens is that instead of relying on IA, which has to tackle constitution revisions, full and provisional charter requests, absences within congress and so on, clubs are now directed to petition to the EVP office,” Fiorisi wrote in an email. “This will alleviate unwanted stress on students who just want to see their clubs established on campus. Students do not want to see their clubs suffer under the sometimes confusing red tape SA ties them up in, and they certainly don’t want to waste precious time on waiting for a busy and fast-turning IA committee.”

This new amendment has also altered the way organizations present themselves to SA and the EVP. According to Rocabado, the presentations done by organizations for chartering approval are now focused on five questions for “transparency.”

Saniya Purewal, a freshman majoring in philosophy, politics and law, explained how she thinks this amendment will allow for more campus involvement for students.

“BU is unique in the sense that we have so many clubs to offer to students,” Purewal said. “If the process for clubs to become chartered becomes easier and faster, more students may want to start their own clubs and find their own community instead of relying on the existing catalog of options. So changing their policy makes the process much less daunting.”

Brian Morrissey, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, expressed his belief that this new resolution will help students find more clubs to join.

“I think if more clubs are getting chartered at a faster pace, there is more likelihood a student will find a club they’ll want to join,” Morrissey said. “There will be more options to choose from, and in case there isn’t any in particular that a student likes, they can simply create their own.”