Cut Funding and Advisor Hunting: The Hurdles of the Club Induction Process
Two students play ping-pong on Club Row during an event on the quad in Fall Semester 2019. (Mariely Alaniz/ The Corsair)
After reaching out to over 30 staff members, attending meeting after meeting, and even planning a sit-in to be heard, the new club Students for Bernie made it to the finish line of the club induction race this past Thursday. They found themselves under Consent Action Item 5.1 in the agenda for the Inter-Club Council’s (ICC) last meeting of the semester: Motion to install with 33% funding.
Through an arduous four-month journey of fulfilling ICC requirements, Students for Bernie club president Randy Lopez said they would have been installed “a long time ago” if they found an advisor sooner. This is not an uncommon hurdle that new clubs have to jump for an official status, let alone those who never make it to the official finish line.
According to Administrative Regulation (AR) 4445, only full-time faculty members or full-time managers may serve as club advisors. Part-time faculty may not serve as the main club advisor, but may co-advise and/or assist the full-time advisor in their responsibilities. In a community college where majority of faculty is part-time, this limits the pool of potential candidates.
“There’s only about 315 full-time faculty and about, I’d say, 1,200 part-time faculty. So you don’t have a huge pool, and those full-time faculty are already working well beyond their contracts,” said Nathaniel Donahue, President of Santa Monica College’s (SMC) Academic Senate.
The Academic Senate is a body of representatives from different standing committees of SMC whose primary function is to make recommendations to the SMC governing board with respect to academic and professional matters, which include issues surrounding student clubs.
For full-time faculty advisors, Donahue admitted it could be difficult to be fully invested in their clubs if they are “tapped out” by their workload. As a past advisor for the Gender-Sexuality Alliance, Donahue passed on his role when his workload increased.
“I was working 65 hours a week on my other stuff and I didn’t have the time… to meet with those students. And that is painful for me,” said Donahue. “As a queer faculty member… all I want to do is spend time with queer students and queer students of color.”
“Some advisors simply don’t advise clubs at all, in hopes of not limiting club members and hoping they will find advisors that have schedules flexible enough to accommodate their goals,” said ICC Chair Natalie Lim.
The purpose of this policy is not explained in AR 4445. The Corsair reached out to the Chair of the Student Affairs Committee Beatriz Magallon regarding the policy, but did not receive a response.
“[It] is a labor condition issue, because those part-time faculty are not being paid a salary like the full-time faculty are,” Donahue said. “I might feel uncomfortable if tons of part-time faculty were doing that labor because they are not being compensated… But that’s not the reason."
Amending this policy requires the mutual agreement between the Academic Senate and SMC’s administration. The policy remains the same otherwise; so far, an agreement has never been reached. The Academic Senate shares a “positive sentiment” when it comes to the inclusion of part-time faculty, according to Donahue.
Lim reported that finding advisors was an apparent struggle for club representatives this semester.
“I am very much aware of how difficult the installation process is,” Lim said. “Club members have been trying to host activities outside of the normal activity hours, which is difficult for many faculty members to accommodate.”
Students have challenged the limits of activity hour in the past. Donahue explains that many full-time faculty members cannot advise on certain days due to meetings or other scheduling issues that take place during the 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. window.
“You can’t be involved with everything if it all happens at the same time,” admits Donahue.
Once a club finally finds an advisor, the struggle does not end there. Clubs looking to be installed have to worry about cuts to their funding if they aren’t installed by specific deadlines.
In accordance with the Associated Students (AS) Fiscal Policy (Article IV, Section A.2), ICC allots different amounts of funds to clubs depending on how quickly they are installed. Clubs installed by the first two ICC meetings receive 100% of ICC’s maximum allotment, which is $600. By the next two meetings, this funding drops to 66% ($396), and then to 33% ($197). If a club is not installed by the last deadline, they do not receive funds for the rest of the semester.
According to a report from Skander Zmerli, A.S. Director of Budget Management, ICC has spent $9,708 of their $37,344 allotment budget as of Nov. 15. With a club’s special account managed by the Auxiliary Office, a club must rely on fundraisers, ICC prize money, and donations for funds other than their allocation.
Although the fiscal policy does not state an official reason for the allocation process, Associate Dean of Student Life Dr. Isaac A. Rodriguez Lupercio stated the purpose is to “encourage the clubs to complete their installation process as soon as possible” and to “provide the clubs with the adequate funds to spend throughout their active semester tenure.”
ICC Chair Natalie Lim adds that the policy “provides more students more extracurricular opportunities and rewards those who learn the A.S. club funding system fast.”
With a club’s special account managed by the Auxiliary Office, a club must rely on fundraisers, ICC prize money, and donations for funds other than their allocation.
When asked if he sees changes to club processes in the future, Donahue said, “If students organize… show up to meetings… [they] could totally change it. There is no one more powerful at this college in reality than students.”