Organization Requirements

Student organizations should maintain a minimum of 5 currently enrolled USI students as members. Exceptions to this may be granted by the Center for Campus Life. Only enrolled USI students are permitted to be members of student organizations. Faculty and staff who are enrolled in classes are not considered students in this case.

Student organizations are able to establish their own criteria for membership. However, student organizations may not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation in its membership criteria.

It is the responsibility of the organization to maintain an accurate roster. Club Sports are required to submit rosters to the Recreation, Fitness and Wellness Center. Fraternity and Sorority Life are required to submit rosters to the Center for Campus Life. All other organizations must update rosters via EagleSync. Rosters are used, among other things, to calculate insurance costs for student organizations so your rosters must accurately contain your current members, officers, and advisors. Your roster should NOT be used as an email list.

Each student organization is required to designate on their roster at least one currently enrolled student as President (or some lead executive officer) and at least one, different student as Treasurer (or some lead finance officer). These two officers represent their organization and will often serve as points of contact for university officials.

Rosters in Presence only allow for the officer positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Committee Chair. If your organization does not use the titles President or Treasurer for those roles, that is okay. But you do need to have students in positions that fill those functions (for example, if your Vice President also acts as the lead finance officer)

Advisor(s) must be full-time employee(s) of USI and not seeking a degree while holding the role of advisor. Advisors must complete an Annual Advisor Agreement and Campus Security Authority training. In case of severe hardship, the Center for Campus Life is authorized to waive this requirement for a reasonable period of time.

Advisor Vacancy: Organizations will have 60 days to fill vacant advisor positions. If the advisor position is not filled within 60 days, the organization will lose their status as a registered organization until an advisor is identified. Activities of the organization may be limited during the time the organization is without an advisor.

Organizations may choose to have an off campus entity serve as an a advisor in addition to the required on campus advisor. 

The majority of student organizations at USI have an on campus fund. To have a fund, the organization must have a financial manager. A financial manager is a full time employee of the University who has been assigned responsibility for one or more fund/org combinations by the Vice President of Business Affairs. Most student organization advisors also serve as the financial manager for the on campus fund. Financial manager responsibilities include the following activities.

• Reviewing financial activity for accuracy and conformance with budget constraints
• Ensuring that financial transactions comply with University guidelines and any external restrictions including grant limitations and federal, state, or local regulations
• Approving charges to assigned fund/orgs
• Granting permission to others to view activity in assigned fund/orgs

Alternate financial managers have the same responsibility and authority as primary financial managers.

Student organizations are required to maintain and follow one or more sorts of governing documents (e.g. constitution, bylaws, standing rules, etc.). These documents set up structure for your organization that will help provide continuity throughout the years. These documents must:

• Establish your organization’s name
• Establish your organization’s purpose, mission, or objective
• Establish membership and organizational structure
• Not permit discriminating in membership as specified above
• Receive an approval from the Center for Campus Life before becoming official and binding

A bylaws template is available on the Center for Campus Life webpage for organizations who need a place to start.

New Governing Documents: New documents or updates to an organization’s governing documents must be approved by the Center for Campus Life before they become official and binding to your organization. During this approval process, the documents are reviewed to make sure it meets the requirements above.

To begin the approval process, submit the document as a PDF through the Governing Document Approval Request Form (found in EagleSync) attaching your new document. If the document passes the review, your request will be approved, and the document will be uploaded to your EagleSync portal with the approval date. If it does not pass, the request will be denied with comments. You are always welcome to set up a meeting with staff in the Center for Campus Life to discuss changes to your documents.

EagleSync will be referenced consistently throughout this guide. EagleSync is the online platform that the University of Southern Indiana uses to organize and streamline community engagement. It is also a tool student organizations can use to recruit new members, maintain administrative functions, and collect useful data. Our office use an off-campus entity called Presence to provide the online platform. When you get emails notifying you or asking you to approve something, the emails will come from Presence. To sign into EagleSync/Presence, use your MyUSI login information. The EagleSync platform can also be accessed here: https://usi.presence.io. 

Governing Bodies
Residence hall, fraternity and sorority governing bodies are considered “registered” student organizations and are expected to complete the registration process before facilities other than their own specific living unit can be used. Additional regulations for the establishment and operation of fraternity and sorority groups are available in Policies for FSL. To be a recognized fraternity or sorority at USI, the organization must be affiliated with a national Greek organization and have received approval for inclusion in the fraternal system from one of the Greek governing boards or Center for Campus Life. (Federal law through Title IX permits fraternities and sororities to remain single gender organizations provided there is equal opportunity to join similar organizations.) 

Additional Groups
Groups such as faculty-initiated academic interest groups, faculty/student governing committees, musical organizations, athletic teams and theatrical activities are not student, but University organizations. As such, they are directed or chaired by a regular University staff member responsible to the academic or administrative authorities. Membership in University organizations is subject to various internal requirements and regulations. The University staff member, by virtue of his or her expertise, is responsible for directing the organization. Students, however, have the right to participate in the organization’s decision-making process. Registration of such groups is not required; however, they are subject to general University procedures, for example, non-discrimination, fundraising, outdoor event and license policies.

Each student organization must meet specific requirements to become and remain registered. No organization is considered registered until the Center for Campus Life approves the registration and notifies the organization of the decision.